^  PRINCETON,    N.    J. 


5/^^^. 


Division . . .  pJIj.  .sJ.  .^. . W.  ^  \ 
NwTiber 


THE 

Unity  of  the  New  Testament. 

A  SYNOPSIS 

OF 

THE  FIRST  THREE  GOSPELS 


AND  OF  THE  EPISTLES  OF  ST.  JAMES,  ST.  JUDE, 
ST.  PETER,  ST.  PAUL, 

TO   WHICH    IS  ADDED   A   COMMENTARY   ON   THE   EPISTLE  TO 
HEBREWS. 


FREDERICK  DENISON  'MAURICE,  M.  A., 

CHAPLAIN   OF  LINCOLN'S  *INN. 


"  Search  the  Scriptures ;  for  in  them  ye  think  ye  have  eternal  life :  and  they  are 
they  which  testify  of  Me. — St.  John. 


(FIRST  AMERICAN  EDITION.) 


BOSTON: 
LEE  &  SHEPARD,  Publishers. 

NEW  YORK: 

CHARLES  T.  DILLINGHAM. 


Su  illemoriam. 

THIS   VOLUME, 

NOT    OF    COMMENTARIES    ON,     BUT    OF    STUDIES    INTO, 

THE    CHRISTIAN    SCRIPTURES, 

IS    DEDICATED   TO   THE    MEMORY   OF 

FREDERICK  DENISON  MAURICE, 

BY    THE    AMERICAN    MAURICE    MEMORIAL    UNION, 

WHO     HAVE     FOUND     "  HIS    METHOD"     OF     INQUIRING     INTO     THE 
REVELATION  OF  HIMSELF,  THAT  THE  FATHER   OF   SPIRITS    HAS 
MADE,   IN  MATERIAL  NATURE,  HUMAN  LIFE  ;  AND  SACRED 
SCRIPTURE,    A-N    ENLIGHTENING,  COMFORTING,    AND 
QUICKENING       INFLUENCE,       WHOSE       BLESSING 
THEY  WOULD    FAIN  SPREAD  AND  PERPETU- 
ATE,   TO    AID    IN    CONSECRATING  THE 
NATION   WHICH    ESPECIALLY 
ASPIRES 

To  IDENTIFY  Liberty  and  Law. 


THE  AMERICAN  MEMBERS  OF  MAURICE   MEMORIAL  UNION. 


Mrs.  Augustus  Hemmenway,  40  Mt.  Vernon  st. 
Miss  Anna  C.  Lowell,  Central  St.,  Roxbury. 
Rev.  E.  A.  Washburn,  D.D.,  Fourth  av.  and 

2ist  St.,  New  York. 
Rev.  Samuel  Osgood,  D.D.,  154  W.  nth  st., 

New  York. 
Rev.  R.  Heber  Newton,  33  E.  83d  st.,  N.Y. 
Rev.  R.  M.  Kirby,  Salt  Lake  City,  Utah. 
Rev.  E    H.  Porter,  Pawtucket,  R.L 
Rev.  Walter  W.  Williams,  New  York. 
Rev.  L.  G.  Stevens,  St.  Stephens'  Rectory,  N. 

Brunswick. 
Rev-  John  Weaver. 

Rev.  Thos.  B.  Wells,  Painesville,  Ohio 
Rev.  Wm.    Lloyd  Himes,    South  Groveland, 

Mass. 
Rev.  J.  N.  Mulford,  Troy,  N.Y. 
Rev.  John  P.  Appleton,  Boontown,  N.J. 
Rev.  Frederic  T.  Webb,  Council  Bluffs,  Iowa. 
Rev.  Alexander  Mackay  Smith,  South  Boston. 
Rev.  Leonidas  Coyle,  Bridgeton,  N.J. 
Rev.  G.  F.  Flichener,  Newark,  N.J. 
Rev.  Charles  R.  Baker,  244  Washington  av., 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
Rev.  Edward  T.  Bartlett,  Matteawan,  Dutch- 
ess Co.,  N.Y. 
Rev.  T.  S-  Pycott,  2  Bible  House,  New  York. 
Rev.  John  W.  Kramer,  259  W.  nth  st.,  N.Y- 
Rev.  Edward  L.  Stoddard,  Jersey  City  Heights, 

N.J. 
Rev.  Brockholst  Morgan,  Portchester,  N.Y. 
Rev.  John  Wm.  Payne,  Englewood,  N.J. 
Rev.  James  S-  Bush,  West  Brighten,  Staten 

Island,  N.Y. 
Rev.  E.  W.  Donald,  Wash.  Heights,  N.Y- 
Rev.  J.  N.  Gallaher,  Madison  av.  and  38th  St., 

N.Y. 
Rev.  A.  Sidney  Dealy,  Passaic,  N.J. 
Rev.  G.  G.  Perrine,  Cape  Vincent,  Jefferson 

Co.,  N.Y. 
Rev.   J.    H.    Rylance,    11   Livingston    Place, 

New  York. 
Rev.  W.  P.  Tucker,  Pawtucket,  R.I. 
Rev.  J.T.  Franklin.  Middlebury,  Vt. 
Rev.  James  Stoddard,  Watertown,  Ct. 
Rev.  W.  G.  Andrew,  New  Haven,  Ct. 


Andrew  D.  White,  LL.D.,  President  of  Cor- 
nell University,  Ithaca,  N-Y. 

F.  A.  Barnard,  President  of  Columbia  College, 
N.Y. 

Rev.  Charles  H.  Bixby,  Wakerfield,  R.I. 

Rev.  A.  D.  Mayor,  Springfield,  Mass.,  and  in 
the  name  of  the  late  Rev.  Thomas  Starr  King, 
San  Francisco,  Cal.* 

Rev.  Ebenezar  Thompson,  Stevens  Point, 
Portage  Co.,  Ind. 

Rev.  T.  L.  Maxwell,  Montclair,  N-J. 

Rev.  W.  B.  Trench,  Wooster,  Ohio. 

Rev.  Cornelius  B.  Smith,  137  E-  31st  St.,  New 
York. 

Rev.  R.  H.  McKim,  27  W.  27th  st.,  N.Y. 

Rev.  C.  C.  Tiffany,  59  W.  38th  st.,  New  York. 

Rev.  Thomas  S.  Yocum,  Richmond,  Staten 
Island,  N.Y. 

Rev.  Arthur  Brooks,  Madison  av.  and  35th  st., 
New  York. 

Rev.  J.  F.  Garrison,  Camden,  N.J. 

Rev.  William  N.  McVicar,  2007  DeLancey 
Place,  Philadelphia. 

Rev.  Henry  Stuart,  512  S.  4th  st.,  Philadel- 
phia. 

Rev.  H.  Forrester. 

Rev.  C.  W.  Duane,  Swedesboro',  N.J. 

Rev.  R.  N.  Thomas,  112  N.  19th  St.,  Phila- 
delphia. 

Miss  C.  Agnes  Meredith,  1830  De  Lancey 
Place,  Philadelphia. 

Mrs.  Wyatt,  221  Maryland  av.,  Baltimore,  and 
Mrs.  Louis  Wistar,  in  the  name  of  the  late 
Philip  P.  Randolph,  321  S-  4th  St.,  Phila- 
delphia.* 

Mrs.  H.  Elden,  Vineland,  N-J. 

Miss  Lucy  M.  Raymond,  Providence,  R.I. 

Elezabeth  R.  Peabody,  Concord,  Mass. 

Rev.  W.  W.  Newton,  Rector  of  St.  Paul's, 
Boston. 

Prof.  R.  E.  Thompson,  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania, Philadelphia. 

Miss  Wales,  19  Brimmer  St.,  Boston. 

*  Both  with  their  lips  and  lives  these  two 
remarkable  men  confessed  their  spiritual  debt 
to  Maurice  for  inspiration  and  peace- 


EXTRACT  FROM  THE  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE. 


This  book  is  precisely  what  its  name  denotes  it  to  be — a 
Synopsis.  It  does  not  profess  to  be  a  commentary,  though 
each  book  is  considered  with  some  carefulness,  and  though  I 
have  often  drawn  the  reader's  attention  to  even  minute  points 
which  I  thought  illustrated  the  writer's  design.  But  my  object 
was  not  to  explain  texts.  I  believe  the  force  of  particular  sen- 
tences is  not  really  felt,  unless  we  can  connect  them  with  the 
purpose  of  the  book  in  which  they  are  found.  I  have  sought  for 
this  purpose  in  each  Gospel  and  Epistle  which  I  have  examined. 
I  have  desired  still  more  earnestly  to  show  that  they  have  one 
common  subject ;  that  they  refer  to  a  Living  Person  ;  that  when 
considered  in  relation  to  him  they  have  a  unity  which  we  can 
discover  by  no  collation  of  paragraphs.         #         *         * 

I  have  not  troubled  the  reader  much  with  what  are  called 
practical  questions  :  first,  because  I  have  always  found  them 
very  unpractical ;  secondly,  because  I  do  not  think  it  is  reverent 
to  make  use  of  the  Bible  for  the  purpose  of  pointing  a  moral  or 
adorning  a  tale  of  ours.  I  believe  it  contains  a  revelation.  I 
desire  to  ask  what  it  reveals. 

F.  D.  M. 


CONT 

UNITY  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 


LECTURE  I. 
PART  I. 

SUBJECTS    COMMON    TO   THE   THREE   EVANGELISTS. 

PAGE. 

Introduction ^ 

The  Preaching  of  John 9 

The  Temptation I5 

The  Preaching  of  Jesus I7 

CaUing  of  the  Disciples i8 

The  Miracles 19 

Publicans  and  Pharisees.     The  New  and  Old  Garment           .  25 

The  Appointment  of  the  Apostles 29 

The  Sabbath-Day 3^ 

The  Parables 34 

Herod  hearing  of  Christ 40 

The  Sign  from  Heaven 41 

The  Leaven  of  the  Sects 43 

Peter's  Confession •  45 

Taking  up  the  Cross '47 

The  Transfiguration •  5° 

The  Epileptic  Boy 52 

Prophecy  of  the  Passion 53 

The  Greatest  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven        ...         .53 

Divorce 5^ 

Blessing  the  Little  Children 58 

The  Temptations  of  the  Rich  Man      .....  59 

The  Temptation  of  the  Poor  Man 63 

The  Going  up  to  Jerusalem 65 

The  Descent  from  the  Mount  of  Olives  .        .         .         .66 

Jesus  going  into  the  Temple 69 

The  Baptism  of  John 71 

Paying  Tribute  to  Caesar 72 

The  Sadducees  and  the  Resurrection     .        .        .        .        . .  74 

What  think  ye  of  Christ  ? 77 

The  Prophecy  of  the  Last  Days .78 

The  Passover 97 

The  Betrayal        ^ 9^ 

(vii) 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 


The  Feast 99 

The  Lord's  Supper loo 

The  Warning  to  Peter 102 

The  Agony 103 

The  Betrayal  and  Apprehension.     The  Sanhedrim.    Peter's 

Denial 105 

Christ  the  King.     The  Arraignment  before  Pilate        .        .  108 

The  Crucifixion        .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  ill 

The  Burial .112 

The  Resurrection 113 


LECTURE  I. 
PART   II. 

Differences  of  the  Evangelists         .        .        .        ♦  uS 

St.  Matthew 119 

St.  Mark      .        .  - 155 

St.  Luke 160 


LECTURE   II. 

ACTS    OF    THE    APOSTLES,    EPISTLES    OF    ST.   JAMES, 

ST.    JUDE,    ST.    PETER,    AND    ST.    PAUL. 

Acts  of  the  Apostles 213 

Epistle  of  St.  James 221 

"  "       Jude 232 

St.  Peter.     First  Epistle 233 

"  Second  Epistle 238 

St.  Paul 246 

Epistle  to  the  Romans 248 

First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians       .  ...  279 

Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians       ....  335 

Epistle  to  the  Galatians 345 

"  "      Ephesians 360 

"  "      Phihppiaos 3^5 

"  "      Colossians 392 

First  and  Second  Epistles  to  the  Thessalonians      .         .  408 

The  Pastoral  Epistles 431 

First  Epistle  to  Timothy 435 

^recond  Epistle  to  Timothy       .....  452 

Epistle  to  Titus 459 

Epistle  to  Philemon 462 

Conclusion '  .         .         .  464 


CONTENTS.  ix 

THE    EPISTLE    TO   THE    HEBREWS. 


LECTURE  L 
How  THE  New  Testament  Fulfills  the  Old        .        .  470 


PAGE. 


LECTURE    IL 
The  Divine  Education  of  the  Jews        ....  492 


LECTURE   HL 
The  Filial  Dispensation 511 

N.B.— All  these  lectures  were  delivered  on  the  foundation  of  Bishop  Warburton,  and 
those  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  several  years  before  those  on  the  Unity  of  the 
New  Testament.  The  interesting  Essay  on  Development  which  makes  the  preface  to 
the  English  Edition  of  the  commentary  we  are  compelled  to  omit  on  account  of  its  great 
length. 


THE  UNITY  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 


LECTURE  I. 


MARK  I.  I. 

The  beginning  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God. 

In  these  Lectures  I  propose  to  make  a  threefold  division  of 
the  New  Testament  Scriptures.  I  shall  begin  with  the  first 
three  Gospels  :  I  shall  go  on  to  the  Epistles  of  St.  James,  St. 
Peter,  and  St.  Paul,  connecting  the  Acts  of  these  Apostles  with 
their  writings ;  I  shall  then  consider  all  the  books  which  are  as- 
cribed to  St.  John. 

It  may  seem  a  strange,  almost  a  monstrous,  undertaking,  to 
treat  of  such  subjects  within  the  space  that  I  can  allot  to  them. 
I  am  thankful  for  the  limitation  of  that  space.  For  the  purpose 
which  I  propose  to  myself  a  large  field  would  be  a  temptation 
rather  than  an  advsntage.  I  desire  to  inquire  whether  there  is 
a  leading  truth  which  goes  through  these  documents,  which 
binds  them  together,  which  explains  the  differences  of  their 
form,  and  their  ajoparent  incongruities.  Such  a  truth,  if  it  exists, 
ought  to  present  itself  to  us  on  their  very  surface.  It  should 
bear  to  be  tested  by  minute  criticism,  but  yet  it  should  reveal 
itself  in  the  general  course  of  the   narrative,  in  the  enunciation 


2  LECTURE    I. 

of  the  discourse.  No  ingenuity  should  be  needed  for  the  detec- 
tion of  it ;  the  only  business  of  the  lecturer  should  be  to  show 
that  this  principle  compels  the  reader  to  acknowledge  a  cohe- 
rency in  these  writings,  even  though  his  theories  incline  him  to 
deny  it. 

But  if  this  is  all  that  I  hope  to  do,  where  lies  the  need  of  such 
an  argument  ?  These  books  have  been  the  food  of  Christian 
men  in  all  lands  for  centuries ;  learning  has  been  exhausted 
upon  them  ;  harmonists,  apologists,  commentators,  have  devoted 
themselves  to  the  defence  and  exposition  of  them.  Must  not 
the  very  suggestion,  that  the  principle  upon  which  they  are  writ- 
ten requires  to  be  brought  to  light  in  the  year  1846,  involve 
either  a  sentence  upon  their  truthfulness,  or  upon  the  sanity  of 
the  person  who  presumes  to  illustrate  them  ? 

I  think  so.  If  the  principle  which  I  am  proposing  to  set 
forth  has  never  been  expressed  in  any  of  the  Creeds  of  Chris- 
tendom, or  has  only  occupied  a  subordinate  place  in  them — has 
never  been  felt  to  be  the  central  one  upon  which  every  proposi- 
tion in  them  is  based — if  this  principle  has  had  no  influence 
upon  the  order  and  constitution  of  society  in  Christendom,  if 
doctors,  and  schoolmen,  and  commentators  are  now  to  be  in- 
formed of  it  for  the  first  time,  I  confess  at  once  that  it  cannot 
be  what  I  pretend  that  it  is,  a  key  to  the  interpretation  of  Scrip- 
ture, and  to  some  of  the  greatest  difficulties  that  have  beset  the 
recent  study  of  it.  But  all  that  I  desire  to  do  is  to  bring  forth 
into  clearness  and  prominence,  that  which  we  are  most  of  us 
professing  to  acknowledge,  that  which  has  determined,  as  I  shall 
hope  to  show  in  some  future  lectures,  the  course  of  events  and 
the  formation  of  society  in  the  modern  world  from  the  destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem  down  to  the  present  time.  It  seems  to  me 
that  we  have  gone  astray  in  the  study  of  Scripture,  not  from  ex- 
cess of  simplicity,  but  from  excess  of  refinement,  from  looking 
to  a  distance  for  that  which  lies  at  our  feet,  from  refusing  to  take 
words  as  they  stand,  and  to  believe  that  the  writers  meant  what 
they  say  they  meant.  If  so  it  may  be  a  duty,  a  useful  though 
a  humble  duty,  to   claim  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  as  a 


INTRODUCTION.  3 

possession  for  the  wayfarer.  When  he  realizes  that  possession, 
he  will,  I  am  satisfied,  be  more  ready  than  ever  to  confess  his 
obligations  to  the  scholar. 

I  will  at  once  explain  what  I  mean  by  this  statement.  We 
commonly  describe  the  first  three  Gospels  as  biographies  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth.  We  assume  that  they  describe  the  different 
acts  and  discourses  which  showed  Him  to  be  the  most  perfect 
of  men,  the  greatest  of  Prophets ;  that  they  give  an  account  of 
miracles  which  proved  His  mission  to  be  divine  ;  that  then  by 
certain  phrases  and  expressions  of  great  value  and  significance, 
though  scattered  up  and  down  the  narratives,  not  forming  the 
most  prominent  and  obvious  part  of  them,  they  claim  for  Him 
an  altogether  superhuman  nature  and  origin.  We  say  that  it 
was  reserved  for  the  fourth  Gospel  to  declare  this  nature  and 
origin  clearly  and  fully.  We  say  that  this  fourth  Gospel  is  far 
more  than  the  rest  a  doctrinal  Gospel,  one  from  which  the  trans- 
cendent dogmas  of  the  Creed  have  been  deduced.  We  suppose 
that  the  main  su'pport,  however,  of  those  dogmas  is  to  be  sought 
for  in  the  Epistles,  especially  in  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul.  We 
make  the  great  difference  between  the  Gospels  and  Epistles  to 
consist  in  this,  that  the  Epistles  tell  us  what  we  are  to  believe, 
that  the  Gospels  set  before  us  the  divine  example  of  life  and 
action.  This  distinction,  it  is  admitted,  is  not  strictly  accurate ; 
the  Epistles  are  practical  as  well  as  doctrinal,  the  Gospels  em- 
body high  doctrine  as  well  as  an  image  of  holy  practice.  Still, 
it  is  held  that  the  division  is  good  enough  for  ordinary  purposes ; 
it  points  out  what  are  the  leading  characteristics  which  we  are 
to  look  for  in  each  class  of  writings.  The  Apocalypse,  we  are 
told,  is  less  easy  to  define.  Some  would  say  it  lies  wholly  be- 
yond the  line  within  which  the  every-day  Christian  should  con- 
fine his  studies  ;  others  affirm,  that  it  is  the  development  of  a 
subject  of  great  practical  importance,  less  clearly  treated  of 
elsewhere — that  second  appearing  of  our  Lord,  which  stands  in 
such  direct  contrast  to  the  humble  appearance  whereof  the  Gos- 
pels speak. 

I  fancy  that  I  have  given  a  tolerably  fair  view  of   the  current 


4  LECTURE    I. 

popular  apprehensions  in  this  countr}^,  respecting  the  books 
which  we  all  hold  with  more  or  less  distinctness,  to  possess  an 
authority  and  character  different  from  all  other  books.  I  shall 
not  enlarge  upon  views  which  have  been  adopted  elsewhere  by 
persons  who  deny  their  authority  and  inspiration  altogether. 
But  I  wish  you  to  remark  that  these  views,  even  those  which 
strike  us  as  the  most  extravagant,  start  from  the  premiss  on 
which  our  popular  notions  rest.  The  modern  Tubingen  school, 
which  has  carried  its  speculations  respecting  the  contradictions 
of  Apostles  and  Evangelists  further  than  any  other,  which  as- 
sumes a  direct  contrast  between  the  spiritual  school  of  Paul  and 
the  Judaical  school  of  James,  Peter,  and  John,  which  limits  the 
genuine  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  to  four  or  five,  which  afhrms  the 
book  of  Revelation  to  be  really  the  work  of  St.  John,  because  it 
is  in  direct  opposition  to  St.  Paul's  doctrine  ;  which  takes  the 
fourth  Gospel  to  be  a  work  of  the  second  century,  one  that  for 
the  first  time  established  Christian  theology  upon  an  Alexan- 
drian basis  ;  this  school  has  brought  its  erudition  audits  modern 
philosophy  to  explain  those  discrepancies  in  the  character  and 
primary  object  of  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  which  it 
supposes  us  all  tacitly  to  admit,  though  we  may  express  ourselves 
in  ambiguous  language  respecting  them.  Now  I  do  not  say  that 
if  the  notions  which  our  commentators,  our  apologists,  and  our 
harmonists,  have  sanctioned,  those  which  have  crept  into  our 
schools,  and  are  more  and  more  pervading  all  our  minds,  are 
admitted,  there  is  7io  refuge  except  in  tjie  conclusions  of  Bauer 
and  his  disciples,  or  in  some  others  which  may  grow  out  of 
them.  But  I  must  confess  my  opinion,  that  the  conflict  with  the 
learning  of  these  teachers  will  be  a  very  hard  one,  and  ultimately 
a  very  useless  one,  if  we  are  not  prepared  to  reconsider  the 
grounds  which  we  and  they  have  in  common.  We  may  now  and 
then  defeat  them  in  a  war  of  posts  ;  they  may  be  detected  in 
perversions  of  ecclesiastical  history,  or  in  abuses  of  their  critical 
skill  ;  but  the  on-lookers  will  regard  it  as  a  question  for  critics 
to  settle  among  themselves.  Without  entering  into  it,  or  under- 
standing the  arguments  on  either  side,  they  will  practically  throw 


INTRODUCTION.  5 

all  their  weight  into  the  scale  of  the  assailant ;  for  they  will  say, 
"  You  are  resting  your  faith  upon  books  which  wise  men,  not 
positively  repudiating  Christianity,  affirm  to  teach  a  number  of 
different  faiths.  It  requires  much  ecclesiastical  lore  to  vindicate 
them,  if  you  do  vindicate  them,  from  that  charge.  How  can 
you  ask  ordinary  laymen  to  take  such  books  for  the  guide  of 
their  thoughts  and  actions  as  individuals  and  as  members  of 
society?  Whatever  they  are,  these  books  are  not  what  our 
fathers  deemed  that  they  were." 

There  might  be  more  difficulty  in  arriving  at  this  conclusion 
if  no  attempts  had  been  made  to  explain  the  Gospel  narratives 
upon  a  principle  which  is  compatible  with  the  utter  rejection  of 
them  as  historical  documents.  A  long  tradition  and  habit  of 
feeling  are  great  protections  against  mere  critical  ingenuity. 
People  would  say,  "  These  documents  must  have  some  common 
meaning ;  their  opponents  are  bound  to  show  what  that  is  before 
they  ask  us  to  cast  them  aside."  I  need  not  tell  you  that  the 
rationalist  is  aware  of  this  demand,  and  is  ready  with  an  answer 
to  it.  A  writer  whose  influence  has  been  much  more  extensive 
among  laymen  and  ordinary  readers,  than  that  of  a  more  learned 
school  like  Bauer's  can  ever  be,  undertook  to  show,  several  years 
ago,  what  worth  there  might  remain  in  the  life  of  Jesus,  though 
almost  all  the  records  of  it  were  taken  to  be  mere  mythical  sto- 
ries. "  It  exhibits,"  he  said,  "  a  great  idea  of  humanity  ;  it  is 
one  of  a  number  of  experiments  of  the  human  spirit  to  conceive 
its  own  greatness  and  glory  ;  it  explains  that  notorious  tendency 
of  men  to  raise  their  benefactors  into  kings  and  gods,  of  which 
the  heathen  records  present  so  many  examples.  It  came  in  at  a 
time  when  other  religions  were  worn  out,  and  when  there  v/as  an 
evident  craving  for  something  more  general,  more  democratic 
than  the  old  national  faiths.  Its  rise  and  progress  were  alto- 
gether consistent  with  what  one  might  have  expected  from  our 
previous  knowledge  of  the  state  of  the  world,  and  of  the  decay 
of  that  which  had  been  most  venerable  in  it.  The  Christian 
Mythology  succeeded  to  the  older  Mythologies  because  it  had  a 
more  comprehensive  human  basis,  and  because  its  falsehoods  as 


6  LECTURE    I. 

well  as  its  truths  were  adapted  to  the  state  of  the  period  in 
which  it  appeared.  It  is  not  adapted,"  continue  these  Doctors, 
*'  to  the  state  of  our  age.  There  is  the  same  decay  visible  in  its 
influence,  the  same  timidity  and  unbelief  in  its  professors,  which 
were  to  be  seen  in  the  Jewish  and  Heathen  worlds  at  the  time  it 
was  proclaimed.  But  there  is  also  a  power  among  philosophers, 
and  even  among  ordinary  men,  of  appreciating  the  beneficent 
and  human  idea  of  it,  which  has  not  existed  in  any  former  age. 
Now  is  the  time  when  we  may  disentangle  that  idea  from  its  sur- 
rounding elements,  and  may  present  it  to  the  world  as  the  last 
result  and  essence  of  the  facts  and  doctrines  to  which  they  have 
for  so  many  centuries  given  credence," 

No  one,  I  think,  can  be  so  inattentive  an  observer  of  the 
thoughts  and  movements  of  our  time,  as  to  suppose  that  these 
words  would  have  been  uttered  distinctly  and  formally  by  one 
man,  if  that  which  engendered  them  had  not  been  working  in 
the  hearts  of  thousands.  And  therefore,  whatever  faith  we  may 
attach  to  the  assertions  of  the  divines  of  the  country  in  which 
this  doctrine  was  first  openly  propagated,  that  its  teacher  has 
not  now  any  great  influence  over  their  schools,  that  he  has  long 
since  been  thrown  into  the  distance  by  other  and  more  rapid 
runners  in  his  own  direction,  that  he  himself,  and  still  more  his 
followers,  have  seen  the  untenableness  and  impossibility  of  the 
half-faith  which  he  tried  for  a  while  to  preserve,  we  may  yet  re- 
main just  as  strongly  convinced  that  all  the  reasonings  of  these 
orthodox  divines,  and  even  all  the  earnest  faith  which  their  rea- 
sonings imply,  have  not  made  the  dogmas  of  Strauss  insig- 
nificant to  them  or  to  us.  If  we  look,  we  shall  find  that  they  are 
silently  adopted  by  a  very  large  class  of  thinking  and  half-think- 
ing people,  not  in  one,  but  in  every,  section  of  our  countrymen. 
We  shall  find  that  they  have  hold  of  the  minds  of  the  old  as 
well  as  of  the  young,  of  the  poor  as  well  as  of  the  rich.  We 
shall  find  that  they  stand  their  ground  against  all  the  arguments 
which  Paley  and  his  school  have  urged  in  proof  of  the  authen- 
ticity of  the  Divine  Records  ;  nay,  that  they  are  brought  forward 
in  the   most   popular  forms,  and  before  the   most  humble  audi- 


INTRODUCTION.  / 

ences,  as  a  triumphant  evidence  that  these  arguments  are  super- 
seded. Nay  more,  the  propagators  of  this  doctrine  maintain 
that  Christianity  has  gained  in  their  hands,  that  they  have  more 
reverence  for  its  principles  and  essential  power  than  we  have. 
They  ask,  what  the  narratives  which  our  harmonists  present  us 
with,  of  journeys  to  Nazareth  and  Capernaum,  are  to  the  recog- 
nition which  they  make  of  the  wonderful,  living,  divine  Truth, 
in  the  maxims  and  the  life  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  ?  What  our 
dry  attempts  to  establish  the  greatness  of  His  mission  by  mirac- 
ulous evidence  are,  to  their  ready  acknowledgment  that  His 
moral  teaching  undermined  more  falsehood  and  established  more 
truth  than  that  of  any  other  man  ?  What  our  endless  debatings 
and  controversies,  to  their  recognition  that  He  preached  and  ex- 
hibited an  all-comprehending  charity  and  humanity? 

I  hope  the  existence  and  the  prevalency  of  such  thoughts  may 
furnish  some  excuse  to  those  who  want  it,  for  the  inquiry  into 
which  I  am  now  entering.  I  have  said  that  I  believe  numbers 
of  students  of  the  Scriptures,  starting  from  the  belief  that  the 
Gospels  are  primarily  records  of  our  Lord's  life  as  a  Teacher  of 
Nazareth,  and  that  the  Epistles  and  the  fourth  Gospel  are  the 
main  witnesses  to  His  Divinity,  will  end  in  the  conclusions  of 
Bauer  respecting  the  essential  diversity  of  the  Gospels  and  Epis- 
tles. I  say  now  that  I  think  a  number  of  practical  people  who 
can  scarcely  be  called  students  at  all,  but  who  have  just  that 
habit  of  thought  about  the  New  Testament  which  characterizes 
our  popular  teaching,  will  fly  to  the  system  of  Strauss,  and  will 
fancy  for  a  time  that  they  have  gained  in  their  religious  sympa- 
thies and  faith  by  the  exchange.  But  as  I  believe  that  neither 
one  of  these  classes  nor  the  other  knows  what  it  will  ultimately 
lose,  I  do  not  say  in  religious  faith  and  sympathies  only,  but  in 
the  love  of  truth,  in  the  acknowledgment  of  any  moral  basis  for 
individual  and  social  life,  above  all,  in  that  humanity  for  which 
they  are  ready  to  sacrifice  every  thing  else  ;  as  I  think  that  this 
Straussian  doctrine  is  essentially  feeble  and  narrow,  in  spite  of 
all  its  pretensions,  is*  essentially  destructive  of  all  the  blessings 
which  the'  Gospel  has  brought  and  will  bring  to  the  poor  man, 


8  LECTURE    I. 

though  it  seems  to  be  devised  for  his  sake  ;  I  do  not  care  how 
much  1  lose  of  their  respect,  or  of  the  respect  of  those  who  op- 
pose them,  while  I  endeavor  to  resist  their  falsehood  by  confess- 
ing what  seems  to  me  a  great  and  perilous  one  of  our  own. 

Instead  of  beginning  from  our  Lord  considered  simply  as  the 
Man  of  Nazareth,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  first  three  Gospels, 
just  as  much  as  the  fourth,  begin  with  assuming  Him  to  be  the 
Son  of  God,  and  the  King  of  men.  To  show  how  He  fulfilled 
these  characters  is  their  object.  All  the  discourses  and  acts 
which  they  attribute  to  Him  are  simple  and  natural  upon  that 
hypothesis,  unintelligible  and  incoherent  upon  any  other.  It 
will  be  the  purpose  of  my  first  Lecture  to  make  good  these 
assertions,  first  from  a  consideration  of  those  facts  which  are 
common  to  the  three  Gospels,  then  by  an  examination  of  their 
characteristic  differences.  In  the  next  Lecture  I  shall  endeavor 
to  show  that  the  Epistles  of  St.  James,  St.  Peter,  and  St.  Paul, 
illustrating  and  illustrated  by  the  events  recorded  in  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles,  exhibit  the  Gospel  of  the  Son  of  God  and  His 
Kingdom  in  another  stage,  and  under  three  distinct  aspects  ; 
but  just  as  personally,  just  as  livingly  as  the  Evangelists  them- 
selves do.  Finally,  that  the  Gospel  and  Epistles  of  St.  John 
harmonize  those  aspects  of  this  Kingdom  which  we  have  traced 
in  the  other  Evangelists,  and  in  the  other  Apostles,  and  that  the 
Apocalypse  conducts  the  history  to  a  crisis  which  all  the  other 
books  had  been  prophesying  of,  a  crisis  which  is  the  full  mani- 
festation of  the  Son  of  God  and  His  Kingdom,  and  shows  that 
as  it  was  the  Kingdom  which  fulfilled  the  meaning  of  all  Jewish 
institutions  and  prophecies,  so  it  would  be  the  real  foundation 
of  all  human  society  after  these  institutions  were  dissolved.  If 
the  facts  looked  at  in  the  most  simple  manner,  should  seem  to 
bear  out  these  conclusions,  the  arguments  which  Bauer  and  his 
school  have  used  to  prove  the  diversity  and  contradiction  of  the 
New  Testament  books,  will  establish  their  unity.  The  argu- 
ments which  Strauss  and  his  school  have  used  to  prove  that  they 
embody  the  conception  of  something  transtendently  human,  will 
show  that  their  basis  is  essentially  divine.     Finally,  the  belief  of 


THE    PREACHING    OF   JOHN.  9 

their  authority  will  not  depend  upon  an  acquaintance  with  old 
traditions,  or  upon  our  power  of  understanding  ingenious  special 
pleas,  but  upon  the  testimony  of  eighteen  centuries,  which  will 
declare  whether  such  a  kingdom  as  that  which  the  New  Testa- 
ment says  would  come  into  existence,  has  come  into  existence 
or  no.  The  last  inquiry  I  have  said  belongs  to  another  division 
of  these  Lectures  :  upon  the  former  I  enter  to-day. 

When  I  make  quotation's  from  records  which  occur  in  all  the 
three  Gospels,  I  shall  take  them  from  St.  Matthew,  because  his 
is  said  to  be  emphatically  the  Ebionite  Gospel,  that  which  is 
most  directly  opposed  to  the  doctrine  of  St.  Paul,  the  teacher 
of  the  Gentiles. 

THE    PREACHING    OF   JOHN. 

ist.  The  first  announcement  which  is  common  to  all  the 
Evangelists  is  this  :  "  In  those  days  came  John  the  Baptist 
preaching  in  the  wilderness  of  Judsea,  and  saying.  Repent  ye, 
for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand." 

The  words  "  kingdom  of  heaven  "  meet  us  at  the  outset  of  our 
inquiry.  They  seem  to  be  significant  words.  Possibly  the 
description  given  of  St.  John's  preaching  and  of  his  acts  may 
help  us  to  determine  what  their  significance  is. 

Those  who  suppose  St.  Matthew  to  have  been  a  bigoted  Jew, 
and  merely  to  have  engrafted  a  carnal  Christianity  upon  his  old 
Hebrew  notions,  will  readily  admit  that  he  intended  by  this 
phrase  an  actual  sovereignty.  They  will  say  at  once  that  he 
derived  his  notion  of  that  sovereignty  from  the  Jewish  Scrip- 
tures. He  was  dreaming  of  the  restoration  of  the  kingdom  of 
David.  He  calls  it  a  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  because  he  believed 
its  power  was  derived  from  the  Lord  God  of  Israel.  He  does 
not  the  less  mean  one  that  was  to  be  established  upon  earth. 
These  views  of  the  phrase,  I  say,  will  be  at  once  admitted  as 
especially  applicable  to  St.  Matthew  by  those  who  give  him  the 
character  which  Neological  critics  assign  him  ;  as  applicable 
also  to  St.  Mark,  and  in  a  somewhat  less  degree  to  St.  Luke.     I 


lO  LECTURE    I. 

cannot  conceive  how  we  can  adopt  any  other  conclusion.  For  a 
Jew  to  use  this  word  Kingdom,  and  merely  to  intend  by  it  what 
modern  theologians  intend  when  they  speak  of  a  "  Christian  dis- 
pensation," or  a  "  divine  and  miraculous  doctrine,"  is  utterly 
impossible.  Whatever  notion  any  old  Prophet  attached  to  the 
words  Divine  Kingdom,  when  he  spoke  of  it  in  connection  with 
the  son  of  Jesse,  or  with  Solomon,  or  with  Hezekiah,  that  we 
are  bound  to  believe  it  must  have  borne  in  the  mind  of  an  Evan- 
gelist who  had  been  bred  up  in  the  faith  of  these  Books,  and 
was  thoroughly  devoted  to  them. 

What  sense  then  did  these  words  bear  when  they  were  used 
by  Isaiah  or  Jeremiah  ?  Did  the  kingdom  of  Solomon  or  of 
Hezekiah  differ,  according  to  their  conceptions,  from  the  king- 
dom of  Pharaoh  ^r  of  Hiram  in  this^  that  it  was  more  externally 
splendid  ?  I  take  the  Jewish  kingdom  at  the  moment  of  its 
greatest  magnificence,  just  when  the  temple  had  been  built,  in 
those  days  when  no  man  counted  silver  any  thing,  when  the 
treasures  of  the  world  were  pouring  into  Jerusalem,  Would  not 
any  one  of  the  Prophets  have  felt  that  the  glory  of  this  kingdom 
consisted  precisely,  as  it  consisted  at  the  time  of  its  greatest  op- 
pression,— when  the  armies  of  Sennacherib  had  destroyed  all 
the  fenced  cities,  and  were  laying  siege  to  Zion, — in  the  fact  that 
the  visible  king  was  a  witness  of  an  invisible  one,  in  whom  all 
the  real  dominion  dwelt  ?  On  what  other  ground  than  this  do 
the  exhortations  of  the  Prophets  to  their  countrymen,  when  any 
great  calamity  was  threatening  them,  rest?  Do  they  not  tell 
them  that  they  are  not  acknowledging  the  invisible  King,  that 
they  have  forgotten  His  covenant  with  them,  that  they  are  bow- 
ing down  before  visible  things,  stocks  and  stones  ?  Do  they  not 
tell  them  to  return  to  Him  from  whom  they  have  deeply  re- 
volted ?  Do  they  not  declare  that  He  is  coming  out  of  His 
place  to  show  them  that  He  is  their  King,  and  the  Ruler  over 
the  whole  earth  ?  Do  they  not  say  that  whether  the  house  of 
David,  the  people,  the  priests,  trust  him  or  not.  He  will  prove 
Himself  to  be  the  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords  ?  Does  any 
one  dream  that  this  language,  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords, 


THE    PREACHING    OF   JOHN.  I  I 

imports  any  thing  less  than  this,  or  other  than  this,  that  He  has 
dominion  in  a  region  which  other  kings  are  trying  to  reach,  but 
cannot  reach,  that  He  sways  the  inner  operations  of  nature,  and 
orders  the  minds  and  wills  of  men  ?  Does  any  one  doubt  that 
the  seer  is  calling  upon  his  people  to  turn  from  their  gross,  vul- 
gar, slavish  notions  of  mere  external  dominion,  which  were  the 
root  of  all  idolatry,  to  Him  in  whom  all  real,  essential  power 
dwelt  without  measure  ?  So  only  would  they  understand  the 
difference  between  a  king  of  Judaea  and  a  king  of  Babylon.  So 
only  would  they  understand  what  that  full  and  perfect  kingdom 
was  which  all  their  sore  discipline  was  to  prepare  them  for. 

John,  we  are  told,  was  clad  in  a  raiment  of  •  camel's  hair,  he 
had  a  leathern  girdle  about  his  loins,  his  meat  was  locusts  and 
wild  honey,  he  preachtd  in  the  wilderness.  All  these  signs 
surely  testify  that  he,  as  much  as  any  old  Prophet,  came  to  with- 
draw men  from  visible  things  to  an  invisible  Ruler.  His  stern 
and  simple  words  contain  the  very  essence  of  the  old  propheti- 
cal discourse.  The  people  felt  that  they  did  ;  they  went  out  into 
the  wilderness  to  him.  They  asked  him  whether  he  was  Elijah? 
They  were  sure  that  he  had  a  message  to  the  nation,  and  to 
each  member  of  it.  Their  consciences  responded  to  that  mes- 
sage. They  were  not  apparently  bowing  down  before  any  idols, 
there  was  nothing  in  their  circumstances  to  suggest  a  resem- 
blance between  themselves  and  those  whom  Elijah  called  to 
renounce  the  worship  of  Baal.  But  their  hearts  confessed  the 
resemblance  ;  they  knew  that  they  were  idol-worshippers  as 
much  as  their  fathers  had  been.  They  knew  that  they,  with 
their  synagogues  in  every  city,  were  as  much  apostatizing  from 
the  Lord  God  of  Israel,  as  those  who  had  their  groves  in  every 
high  place. 

John  put  their  conviction  to  the  test.  He  came  baptizing 
with  water.  He  called  upon  Jews  to  submit  to  a  rite  which 
admitted  Gentiles  to  the  privileges  of  the  Temple-worship. 
They  were  to  confess  that  they  had  need  of  purification.  And 
what  purification  ?  John  spoke  of  it  as  of  the  most  inward 
kind.     It  was   for  the   remission   of  sins.      He  did   not  shrink 


12  LECTURE    I. 

from  explaining  the  meaning  of  his  own  sign.  The  most  hon- 
ored of  the  Jews  were  called  a  generation  of  vipers,  were  warned 
of  a  wrath  to  come,  were  told  that  they  were  not  to  say  within 
themselves,  We  have  Abraham  to  our  father,  for  that  God  was 
able  of  those  stones  to  raise  up  children  unto  Abraham.  That 
no  doubt  might  remain  upon  their  minds  whether  this  baptism. 
imiDorted  the  removal  of  some  external  defilements,  or  whether 
it  denoted  the  most  internal  reformation,  they  were  told  that  the 
axe  was  laid  to  the  root  of  the  trees,  and  that  whatsoever  did 
not  bear  good  fruit  would  be  hewn  down  and  cast  into  the  lire. 

All  this  language,  I  submit,  is  perfectly  consistent  with  itself  ; 
there  are  no  symptoms  of  awkward  patchwork  in  it,  of  some 
later  refinement  grafted  upon  a  Judaical  stock.  Read  it  by  the 
light  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures,  by  all  means  ;  you  cannot  read  it 
by  any  other.  But  that  light  will  show  that  at  a  time  when  the 
•last  gleam  of  native  royalty  had  departed  from  Judaea,  when  it 
bore  the  most  ignominious  signs  of  a  Roman  province,  when 
pretenders  were  continually  arising  who  reminded  the  people  of 
their  ancient  glories,  and  urged  them  to  break  the  sceptre  of  the 
oppressor,  there  was  a  voice  which  spoke  of  the  very  kingdom 
which  all  devout  Jewish  rulers  had  acknowledged,  as  about  to  be 
manifested,  which  declared  that  to  be  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven, 
because  it  was  a  kingdom  over  the  inner  man,  over  the  spirit 
and  heart,  which  insulted  and  set  at  nought  all  exclusive  Jewish 
pretensions,  at  the  very  moment  when  it  was  asserting  the  great- 
ness of  Jewish  privileges,  which  announced  a  crisis  as  at  hand 
which  would  shake  the  whole  of  society,  as  it  then  existed,  to 
its  centre. 

THE    BAPTISM    OF    CHRIST. 

But  say  the  three  Evangelists,  "  John  spake  to  the  people, 
saying,  I  indeed  baptize  you  with  water  unto  repentance  ;  but 
He  that  cometh  after  me  is  mightier  than  I,  whose  shoes  I  am 
not  worthy  to  bear ;  He  shall  baptize  you  with  the  Holy 
Ghost;"  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Luke  add,  ''  and  with  fire:' 


THE    BAPTISM    OF    CHRIST.  1 3 

Whether  we  introduce  those  words  or  leave  them  out,  the 
main  idea  of  the  passage  is  clearly  the  same.  The  expression 
fire,  and  the  words  respecting  the  fan  in  the  hand,  which  follow, 
bring  before  us  more  distinctly  the  vision  of  One  coming  to 
purge,  to  sift,  to  judge,  of  One  who  will  penetrate  through  all 
appearances,  whose  work  is  with  the  inner  heart  of  the  society, 
and  of  the  individual.  But  the  words,  "  He  shall  baptize  with 
the  Holy  Ghost,"  contain  that  meaning,  and  fix  our  thoughts 
upon  the  nature  of  the  power  which  He  of  whom  John  spake 
would  exercise.  The  call  to  repentance  was  the  call  to  an  in- 
ternal, spiritual  act.  John  declares  that  the  greater  One  will 
carry  out  perfectly  that  which  he  has  done  imperfectly,  will  strike 
more  at  the  root  of  the  tree  than  he  had  been  able  to  strike, 
would  show  what  his  baptism  meant,  would  give  the  energy 
which  would  enable  men  to  do  that  and  be  that  which  he  told 
them  they  must  do  and  be.  Let  us  never  forget  that  these  car- 
nal, Ebionitish,  Jewish  Gospels,  make  this  the  foundation  of  our 
Lord's  history.  The  ground  of  it,  according  to  them,  lies  in  the 
proclamation — "  He  comes  to  baptize  with  the  Spirit  and  with 
fire."  I  call  your  attention  to  this,  as  one  of  the  most  obvious, 
superficial  indications  of  their  common  intention,  one  which  it 
requires  no  skill  to  discover,  one  which  the  most  careless  reader 
cannot  overlook.  I  call  upon  you  to  watch  each  step  as  we  pro- 
ceed, and  to  say  whether  this  superficial  fact  is  not  the  indica- 
tion of  something  which  goes  through  the  heart  of  every  narra- 
tive, and  which  it  is  just  as  rational  to  suppose  was  interpolated 
into  them,  as  to  suppose  that  a  bricklayer  interpolated  the  idea 
of  the  Parthenon. 

The  story  goes  on,  "  Then  cometh  Jesus  from  Galilee  to  Jor- 
dan, unto  John,  to  be  baptized  of  him.  But  John  forbade  Him, 
saying,  I  have  need  to  be  baptized  of  Thee,  and  comest  Thou 
to  me  ?  And  Jesus  answering  said  unto  him.  Suffer  it  to  be  so 
now,  for  thus  it  becometh  us  to  fulfil  all  righteousness.  Then 
he  suffered  Him.  And  Jesus  when  He  was  baptized  went  up 
straightway  out  of  the  water,  and  lo  !  the  heavens  were  opened 
unto  Him,  and  he  saw  the  Spirit  of  God  descending  like  a  dove, 


14  LECTURE    I. 

and  lighting  upon  Him  ;  and  lo  !  a  voice   from  heaven,  saying, 
This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased." 

What  a  central  place  this  narrative  occupied  in  the  Gospel 
history,  what  importance  it  had  in  the  scheme  of  Christian  doc- 
trine, all  the  elder  heretics  perceived.  Every  Gnostic  was  bound 
to  give  his  interpretation  of  it,  and  to  connect  it  with  his  theory 
of  the  relation  between  the  Jesus  and  the  Christ.  Those  in 
modern  days  who  reject  the  early  chapters  of  St.  Matthew  and 
St.  Luke,  are  bound  in  consistency  to  regard  this  as  the  com- 
mencement of  the  Evangelical  records.  Assuredly  neither  the 
one  nor  the  other  can  have  erred  in  supposing  that  it  did  hold 
a  most  prominent  place  in  the  minds  of  the  Gospel  writers 
themselves,  and  that  they  connected  with  it  all  that  they  tell 
afterwards  of  our  Lord's  Ministry.  No  doubt  they  have  found 
a  plea  in  the  narrative  itself  for  maintaining  their  charge  of  car- 
nal and  superstitious  notions  against  these  writers.  If  there  are 
no  visible  signs  of  that  which  is  invisible,  if  the  belief  of  an 
actual  Man  being  the  Son  of  ^God  is  at  once  to  be  rejected  as 
anthropomorphic,  there  need  be  no  more  debate  upon  the  ques- 
tion ;  it  is  settled,  by  one  comprehensive  peiitio  priJicipii.  But 
if  not,  plain  men  will  not  be  hindered  by  being  told  that  the 
form  of  a  Dove  or  the  Voice  from  Heaven  are  merely  Jewish  or 
Pagan  methods  of  projecting  outwardly  certain  processes  or  ex- 
periences of  our  own  minds,  from  perceiving  that  this  record 
carries  us  into  that  deep  and  inward  ground  which  philosophy 
is  always  seeking  to  reach,  but  has  never  found.  That  King- 
dom of  which  John  spoke  as  at  hand,  is  declared  to  have  its 
foundation  in  a  living  Person.  He  who  had  been  always  ruling 
it,  is  now  revealed :  "  This  is  my  beloved  Son  "  is  the  revelation. 
It  is  of  a  Son  of  God,  clothed  with  the  Spirit  of  God  that  He 
may  exercise  dominion  over  the  spiritual  world  and  over  all  the 
inward  powers  of  things,  that  the  Evangelists  are  to  testify.  We 
are  to  see  whether  men  so  simple  and  brought  up  in  so  narrow  a 
school,  make  good  their  magnificent  pretensions  ;  whether  they 
do  not  betray,  by  some  exaltation  of  the  mere  human  Friend 
and  Teacher,  the  vanity  and  incoherency  of  their  dream  ;  whether 


THE    TEMPTATION.  15 

they  really  speak  as  men  would  speak  who  were  commissioned 
to  set  forth  one  who  derived  nothing  from  the  accidents  of  His 
position  on  earth,  every  thing  from  his  relation  to  a  divine  and 
invisible  Father. 

THE    TEMPTATION. 

The  next  step  in  the  narrative  bears  the  clearest  marks,  say 
all  neological  interpreters,  of  being  mythical.  It  has  nothing  to 
do  with  the  regular  course  of  the  story  ;  it  has  been  introduced, 
like  all  legends  of  great  heroes,  to  give  the  common  events  sig- 
nificance, whereas  it  really  disturbs  their  sequence,  and  shows 
what  a  curious  mosaic  the  composition  is.  I  quite  admit  that  if 
the  Gospels  are  the  history  of  the  journeyings  of  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth for  one,  or  two,  or  three  years,  from  Judaea  to  Galilee,  from 
Galilee  to  Judsea — if  it  is  by  our  skill  in  tracing  out  the  times  in 
which  these  took  place  and  their  coincidence  with  Jewish  festi- 
vals, that  we  are  to  measure  our  knowledge  of  the  facts  of  the 
Gospel  history  and  of  their  relation  to  each  other — the  Tempta- 
tion stands  awkwardly  in  our  way.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  we 
take  the  history  of  the-Baptism  to  be  what  it  seems  to  be  j  if 
Jesus  was  then  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  if  He  was  sealed 
with  the  Spirit,  there  seems  precisely  that  connection  between 
the  history  in  the  third  and  fourth  chapters  of  St.  Matthew, 
which  the  composers  of  our  Litany  recognized.  "  Thou  art  the 
Son  of  God,"  is  the  assertion  of  the  Baptism  ;  "if  Thou  be  the 
Son  of  God,"  is  the  form  of  the  Temptation.  He  is  endued  with 
the  filial  Spirit ;  he  wrestles  with  the  Spirit  of  disobedience.  He 
will  not  separate  Himself  from  Man  by  making  stones  into  bread 
for  Himself  ;  for  Man  is  to  live  by  every  word  of  God.  He  will 
not  cast  Himself  from  a  pinnacle  of  the  Temple  )  for  it  is  writ- 
ten, "Thou  shalt  not  tempt  the  Lord  thy  God."  He  will  not 
take  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  from  Satan  ;  for  it  is  writ- 
ten, "  Thou  shalt  worship  the  Lord  thy  God."  The  idea  of  a 
Son  claiming  nothing  for  Himself,  in  all  things  trusting  His 
Father,  obeying  His  Father,  is  surely  brought  out  here  with  a 
clearness,  definiteness,  simplicity,   an   absence   of   all  pomp  of 


l6  LECTURE    T. 

words,  of  all  the  ordinary  accidents  and  coloring  of  a  legend, 
which  is  at  least  very  very  strange.  The  idea  of  a  spiritual  con- 
flict, of  a  battle  with  a  spiritual  foe,  is  surely  set  out  with  a  free- 
dom from  the  material  appliances  of  the  most  vulgar  as  well  as 
of  the  greatest  artists,  which  you  would  scarcely  be  prepared  for 
in  a  Jev;ish  tax-gatherer  ;  still  less  if  the  story  of  that  Jewish 
tax-gatherer  was  afterwards  embellished  by  some  theological 
doctor.  But  does  it  not,  I  shall  be  asked,  give  a  personality  to 
the  Spirit  of  Evil,  and  is  not  that  characteristic  just  what  one 
looks  for  in  a  legend?  Most  assuredly,  I  conceive,  one  cannot 
read  the  story  without  feeling  that  our  Lord  was  engaged  in  a 
personal  battle  with  a  personal  foe.  It  is  no  shadow-fight. 
There  is  nothing  in  it  which  bears  the  look  of  a  dream  or  a  vis- 
ion. Every  thing  is  intensely  real.  But  the  wonder  is  that  this 
reality  and  personality  should  be  preserved  and  sustained  with 
such  an  absence  of  materialism.  No  image  of  the  Tempter  is 
presented  to  us,  neither  such  a  one  as  a  middle-age  painter  would 
have  given,  nor  such  a  one  as  belongs  to  the  Miltonic  concep- 
tion. We  feel  that  the  Son  of  God,  clothed  with  a  human  body, 
was  not  a  Person  in  virtue  of  that  body.  We  feel  that  the  per- 
sonality which  belongs  to  the  opposing  power  has  in  like  manner 
nothing  to  do  with  an  outward  shape  or  visible  circumstances. 
We  are  led  to  feel  that  there  is  a  deep,  radical  evil,  a  spirit  of 
evil,  underlying  all  the  shapes  and  forms  in  which  it  presents  it- 
self to  us  on  earth.  We  feel  that  He  who  could  reach  to  that 
radical  evil,  and  dispossess  those  shapes  and  forms  of  it,  could 
alone  assert  the  dominion  of  the  God  of  Truth  and  Love  over 
the  world.  We  feel  that  this  radical  evil  is  nothing  original, 
nothing  which  God  created,  that  it  is  essentially  the  spirit  of  dis- 
obedience, a  perverted,  rebel  will,  and  that  He  who  has  the  true 
obedient  will  must  be  the  destroyer  of  it,  the  Redeemer  of  the 
Universe  from  it.  Such  an  introduction  to  a  history  of  a  series 
of  acts  of  redemption  or  deliverance,  bears  no  marks  of  being 
transferred  from  some  other  records  to  a  place  for  which  it  was 
not  intended.  If  it  has  a  meaning  at  all,  it  is  in  its  right  posi- 
tion there.     The  want  of  it  would  be  a  cause  of  real  perplexity. 


THE    PREACHING    OF   JESUS. 


THE    PREACHING    OF    JESUS. 


"  Now  when  Jesus  had  heard  that  John  was  cast  into  prison," 
says  St.  Matthew,  "  He  departed  into  GaHlee."  He  quotes  a 
passage  which  he  says  was  fulfilled  by  His  coming  into  the  coast 
of  Zebulon  and  Naphtali,  and  then  proceeds,  "  From  that  time 
Jesus  began  to  preach  and  to  say,  Repent ;  for  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven  is  at  hand."  St.  Mark  says,  "  Now  after  that  John  was 
put  in  prison,  Jesus  came  into  Galilee,  preaching  the  Gospel  of 
the  kingdom  of  God,  and  saying.  The  time  is  fulfilled,  and  the 
kingdom  of  God  is  at  hand  ;  repent  ye,  and  believe  the  Gospel." 
St.  Luke  says,  "And  Jesus  returned  in  the  power  of  the  Spirit 
into  Galilee,  and  there  went  out  a  fame  of  Him  through  all  the 
region  round  about."  He  then  describes  His  coming  to  Naza- 
reth, where  He  had  been  brought  up.  His  reading  the  passage 
from  Isaiah,  where  it  is  written,  "The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon 
me,  because  He  has  anointed  me  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the 
poor.  He  hath  sent  me  to  heal  the  broken-hearted,  to  preach 
deliverance  to  the  captives,  and  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind, 
to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised,  to  preach  the  acceptable 
year  of  the  Lord."  These  passages  will  be  connected,  and  rea- 
sonably connected,  by  a  harmonist,  as  referring  to  the  same  visit 
to  Galilee.  I  quote  them  to  point  out  what  seems  to  me  a  much 
more  radical  and  important  coincidence,  that  which  concerns  the 
nature  of  our  Lord's  preaching,  and  its  connection  with  the  fore- 
gone history.  He,  when  He  comes  to  Galilee,  begins  preaching 
the  Kingdom  of  God,  begins  saying,  "  Repent ;  for  the  Kingdom 
of  God  is  at  hand."  No  other  account  is  given  in  the  first  two 
Evangelists  of  the  words  spoken  by  Him  who  had  been  declared 
to  be  the  Son  of  God  except  this.  John  the  Baptist's  message 
is  precisely  the  message  of  the  Christ.  There  is  the  same  an- 
nouncement of  a  kingdom,  the  same  call  to  repentance,  the  same 
allusion  to  the  fulfilment  of  the  time,  to  some  approaching  crisis. 
Only  this  announcement  is  now  called  a  Gospel.  It  is  good 
news  that  the  kingdom  is  at  hand,  that  the  time  is  fulfilled.    Men 

2 


1 8  LECTURE    I. 

are  to  repent  and  believe  this  good  news.  St.  Luke  expands 
and  explains  the  words  of  the  other  Evangelists.  He  begins 
with  declaring  that  Jesus  came  in  the  power  of  the  Spirit  into 
Galilee.  He  shows,  in  a  particular  synagogue,  what  the  kind  of 
preaching  was,  which  elsewhere,  though  not  there,  was  glorified 
of  all.  His  preach  ng  is  the  announcement  of  One  who  was 
able  to  heal  the  sick  and  deliver  the  captives,  because  the  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  was  upon  Him — a  Deliverer  who  was  to  undo  chains 
which  no  one  could  undo  who  was  not  endued  with  a  Spirit — 
the  King  who  had  dominion  over  the  secret  powers  and  the 
inner  being  of  man  was  declared  to  be  at  hand.  Men  were  to 
repent,  that  they  might  understand  what  His  government  over 
them  was.  To  confess  His  dominion  over  them  was  to  believe 
the  Gospel. 

CALLING    OF    THE    DISCIPLES. 

"  And  Jesus,"  says  St.  Matthew,  "  walking  by  the  sea  of  Gali- 
lee, saw  two  brethren,  Simon  called  Peter,  and  Andrew  his 
brother,  casting  a  net  into  the  sea ;  for  they  were  fishers.  And 
he  saith  unto  them.  Follow  me,  and  I  will  make  you  fishers  of 
men.  And  they  straightway  left  their  nets,  and  followed  Him. 
And  going  on  from  thence,  He  saw  other  two  brethren,  James 
the  Son  of  Zebedee,  and  John  his  brother,  in  a  ship  with  Zebe- 
dee  their  father,  mending  their  nets.  And  He  called  them. 
And  they  immediately  left  the  ship,  and  their  father,  and  fol- 
lowed Him."  St.  Mark  gives  nearly  the  same  account.  St. 
Luke's  is  connected  with  the  wonderful  draught  of  fishes.  But 
these  words,  "  From  henceforth  thou  shalt  catch  men,"  which 
are  the  key-words  to  his  narrative,  belong  equally  to  both  the 
others.  Supposing  we  had  no  other  narratives  but  these,  sup- 
posing all  that  is  peculiar  to  St.  Luke's  Gospel  was  omitted, 
supposing  we  had  heard  nothing  before  of  a  Kingdom,  or  of  a 
Son  of  God,  our  first  conclusion,  I  think,  w^ould  be,  "This  slory, 
told  wdth  such  severe  simplicity,  in  such  few  words,  is  certainly 
intended  to  describe  the  way  in  wdiich  some  royal  person. claimed 


THE    MIRACLES.  I9 

authority  over  the  humble  men  about  him,  took  them  into  his 
service,  assigned  to  them  some  high  office,  the  nature  of  which 
they  were  but  little  able  to  apprehend,  but  which  implied  some 
very  remarkable  influence  and  ascendancy  over  their  fellow- 
creatures."  If  then  we*  found  that  all  the  previous  records 
seemed  to  speak  of  such  a  King,  of  a  mysterious  authority  which 
He  exercised,  and  which  He  was  come  to  assert  and  use  on  be- 
half of  human  creatures,  we  should  certainly  think  that  this  nar- 
rative stood  in  a  very  close  and  natural  relation  to  the  other. 
Upon  any  other  hypothesis  than  this,  if  any  other  feeling  or  con- 
viction possessed  the  mind  of  the  writer,  we  should  certainly 
look  for  quite  a  different  phraseology,  one  much  less  direct  and 
simple,  but  also  much  less  august. 

THE    MIRACLES. 

*'  And  Jesus  went  about  all  Galilee,  teaching  in  their  syna- 
gogues and  preaching  the  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom,  and  healing 
all  manner  of  sickness  and  all  manner  of  disease  among  the 
people.  And  His  fame  went  throughout  all  Syria,  and  they 
brought  unto  Him  all  sick  people  that  were  taken  with  divers 
diseases  and  torments,  and  those  which  were  possessed  with 
devils,  and  those  which  were  lunatic,  and  those  that  had  the 
palsy.  And  He  healed  them."  This  is  the  announcement  in 
St.  Matthew's  Gospel  which  immediately  follows  the  call  of  the 
disciples.  If  you  turn  to  the  passage  in  St.  Mark,  from  the  21st 
to  the  35th  verses  of  the  first  chapter,  you  will  find  that  he 
speaks  especially  of  one  man  in  a  synagogue  who  had  an  un- 
clean spirit,  and  who  cried  out,  "  Let  us  alone  ;  what  have  we 
to  do  with  Thee,  Thou  Jesus  of  Nazareth  ?  I  know  Thee  who 
Thou  art,  the  Holy  One  of  God  ; "  that  he  then  alludes  to  the 
cure  of  Simon's  wife's  mother  of  a  fever,  then  to  His  healing 
many  who  were  sick  of  many  diseases,  and  casting  out  many 
devils.  If  you  turn  to  the  passage  in  St.  Luke,  from  the  i6th 
to  the  44th  verses  of  the  fourth  chapter,  you  will  find  continual 
allusions  to  cures  and  healings,  the  same  account  of  casting  out 


20  LECTURE    I. 

the  unclean  spirit  in  the  synagogue  which  we  had  in  St.  Mark, 
the  same  reference  to  the  cure  of  Simon's  wife's  mother,  con- 
cluding with  the  words  "  Devils  also  came  out  of  many,  crying 
out  and  saying,  Thou  art  Christ  the  Son  of  God." 

If  you  read  and  compare  these  different  passages  carefully, 
you  will  be  struck,  I  think,  with  nothing  more  than  the  close 
blending  of  what  is  called  the  miraculous  part  of  the  story  with 
that  which  refers  to  the  preaching.  "  He  preached  the  Gospel 
of  the  Kingdom,  and  healed  all  manner  of  sickness,"  says  St. 
Matthew.  "  He  taught  them,"  says  St.  Mark,  "  as  one  having 
authority,  and  not  as  the  scribes ;  and  there  was  in  their  syna- 
gogue a  man  having  an  unclean  spirit,  etc.  And  they  were  all 
amazed,  insomuch  that  they  questioned  among,  themselves,  say- 
ing, What  thing  is  this  ?  What  new  doctrine  is  this  ?  For  with 
authority  commandeth  He  the  unclean  spirits,  and  they  do  obey 
Him."  The  same,  or  nearly  the  same  words,  are  repeated  in 
St.  Luke,  in  nearly  the  same  connection ;  and  the  whole  narra- 
tive in  his  fifth  chapter  assumes  and  illustrates,  even  more  than 
those  in  the  other  two  Evangelists,  the  connection  between  the 
"  doctrine,"  and  the  "  word,"  and  these  acts  of  "  authority." 

Now,  supposing  the  words,  "preaching  the  Kingdom  of  God," 
were  taken  as  I  have  taken  them  literally,  supposing  the  actual 
King  of  the  world  was  coming  to  claim  and  assert  His  King- 
dom, supposing  He  who  by  His  word  had  given  life  and  breath 
to  all  creatures,  was  really  come  to  show  Himself  to  His  crea- 
tures, and  to  claim  their  homage  ;  such  a  connection  as  this 
would  surely  be  most  natural.  You  would  not  expect  the  Evan- 
gelist to  say,  as  we  are  wont  to  sa}-,  "  Christ  delivered  this  beau- 
tiful and  touching  discourse,  and  then  to  make  it  known  that  He 
had  a  high  commission,  and  that  He  ought  to  be  listened  to.  He 
put  forth  strange,  novel,  unwonted  powers."  You  would  expect 
them  to  say  just  as  they  do  say.  He  declared  His  kingdom,  and 
He  healed  the  sick.  He  used  the  powers  which  He  had  always 
been  using ;  He  declared  who  it  was  from  whom  all  healing  had 
always  come. 

There  would   be  many  other  indications  which  would  show 


THE    MIRACLES.  21 

which  of  these  two  views  of  our  Lord's  character  and  objects  was 
the  ruling  one  in  the  minds  of  the  Evangelists.  If  they  were  writ- 
ing the  legend  of  a  great  hero  or  saint,  who  was  to  be  exhibited  as 
doing  things  more  extraordinary  than  man  had  ever  done,  the 
acts  represented  would  be  of  as  outward  and  glaring  a  kind  as 
possible.  The  common  physician  labors  by  getting  at  the  secret 
source  of  diseases  to  overcome  the  outward  symptoms.  The 
legendary  miracle-worker  by  touches  and  charms  acts  upon  the 
direct,  palpable  malady  which  is  presented  to  him,  and  lets  all 
the  world  admire  how  rapidl/it  has  disappeared.  Supposing, 
on  the  other  hand,  a  writer  to  represent  one  w^ho  had  the  domin- 
ion over  all  the  secret  powers  and  springs  of  human  life,  whose 
servant  the  physician  had  been,  by  whose  wisdom  the  physician 
had  acted,  when  he  sought  to  trace  the  sign  home  to  its  princi- 
ple, you  would  not  wonder  if  he  told  you  that  this  Person  spoke 
to  something  within  the  man,  and  set  that  right  first,  that  when 
he  had  given  the  blessing  He  did  not  care  that  it  should  be  made 
known  ;  that  He  referred  to  the  disappearance  of  the  external 
symptoms  or  manifestations  of  disease  merely  as  proofs  of  a 
radical  cure.  These  are  characteristics  of  the  Evangelical  nar- 
ratives  ;  every  one  knows  that  they  are  ;  every  one  is  more  or 
less  struck  wath  them.  They  are  taken  notice  of  as  indications 
of  the  simplicity  of  the  writers,  as  signs  of  the  absence  of  strain 
and  effort  at  display  in  their  narratives  ;  they  are  not  dwelt 
upon,  I  think,  as  marking  the  very  purport  of  these  narratives. 

In  close  relation  to  this  subject  stand  the  allusions  to  the 
casting  out  of  devils,  which  recur  so  frequently  in  all  the  pas- 
sages I  have  quoted.  You  cannot  help  perceiving  that  the 
Evangelists  connect  particular  kinds  of  sickness  with  diabolical 
possession  ;  but  that  they  do  in  some  sort  leave  the  impression 
upon  our  mind,  that  all  sickness  has  this  origin.  At  any  rate, 
they  direct  our  attention  to  this  exercise  of  power  as  the  most 
characteristic  of  Christ,  as  that  which  explains  all  His  other  ex- 
ercises of  it.  This  is  a  point  which  the  commentators  on  the 
Gospels  are  in  general  rather  anxious  to  pass  over.  They  re- 
gard it  as  a  difficulty  to   be  got  rid  of  in  one   way  or  another. 


22  LECTURE    I. 

Some  may  take  the  way  of  saying  that  the  Evangelists  adapted 
themselves  to  the  Jewish  mode  of  speaking,  some  may  say  that 
possession  belonged  to  that  particular  age,  some  may  urge  cases 
to  prove  that  it  has  not  been  quite  unknown  in  any  age,  some 
may  talk  of  the  anthropomorphism  and  superstition  which  were 
natural  in  such  writers.  These  last  are  plausible  and  high- 
sounding  words  ;  whether  those  who  use  them  glibly  and  habitu- 
ally have  ever  really  considered  their  meaning,  is  another  ques- 
tion. By  anthropomorphism  I  understand  conceiving  that  which 
is  spiritual  under  a  human  shape-  I  do  not  find  the  Evangelists 
speaking  of  the  devils  as  having  any  human  shapes.  By  super- 
stition I  understand  the  setting  that  above  us  which  is  properly 
beneath,  or  making  our  object  of  worship  an  object  of  fear.  I 
find  the  Evangelists  not  setting  up  the  devils  as  powers  above, 
but  as  powers  working  within  ;  I  find  them  representing  the 
Christ,  not  as  teaching  men  to  fear  them  and  worship  them,  but 
as  delivering  men  from  them,  and  teaching  men  to  worship  God. 
And  if  that  be  the  object  which  all  these  acts  of  power  and  maj- 
esty aim  at,  I  submit  that  they  are  at  least  in  marvellous  accord- 
ance with  the  story  which  stood  at  the  commencement  of  these 
Gospels,  and  seemed  a  preface  to  them.  He  who  was  pro- 
claimed to  be  the  Son  of  God,  and  was  endued  with  the  Spirit 
of  God,  was  led  up  by  that  Spirit  into  the  wilderness,  and  was 
tempted  of  the  devil.  He  warred  with  that  radical  Spirit  of  dis- 
obedience which  had  asserted  dominion  over  human  creatures, 
and  had  sought  to  make  them  his  servants  :  He  now  wars  with 
all  the  forms  in  which  that  evil  power  is  working  for  men's  mis- 
chief. That  power  is  most  directly,  personally  manifested  in 
whatever  concerns  man  personally,  in  whatever  affects  him  mor- 
ally whether  it  be  mixed  with  physical  disease  or  not.  The  un- 
clean spirit,  the  spirit  of  despair  which  drives  a  man  into  the 
tombs,  and  makes  him  cry,  and  cut  himself  with  stones,  and  be- 
come a  terror  to  his  fellows,  who  cannot  bind  him,  no  not  with 
chains,  is  the  most  essential  and  inward  tyrant.  Christ  in  as- 
serting lordship  over  him,  in  bidding  him  come  out  of  the  man, 
proclaims  that  every  thing  which  is  unhealthy,  diseased,  corrupt. 


THE    MIRACLES.  23 

whether  it  affects  body  or  mind,  or  both  in  their  mysterious 
unity,  is  not  from  above,  but  from  beneath,  is  not  according  to 
the  original  order  and  constitution  of  the  universe,  has  not  come 
from  God,  but  has  come  from  rebellion  against  God  ;  is  there- 
fore to  be  redressed  and  abolished  by  the  Holy  One  of  God,  the 
Son  of  God,  who  comes  to  preach  and  to  establish  the  Kingdom 
of  God. 

Instead  therefore  of  dwelling  upon  the  other  miracles  with 
great  earnestness,  as  the  only  satisfactory  evidences  of  our  Lord's 
mission,  and  endeavoring  to  pass  over  the  stories  of  the  casting 
out  of  devils  as  perplexities  to  be  avoided,  we  shall,  if  we  follow 
the  Evangelists,  seek  in  these  for  the  general  law  and  principle 
of  the  miracles,  considering  that  they  explain,  more  than  any  of 
the  others,  the  nature  of  His  operations  and  the  end  of  his 
coming.  At  all  events,  the  Evangelists,  whatever  others  they 
may  omit,  or  report  differently,  all  agree  in  fixing  our  attention 
upon  these,  and  in  using  language  which  continually  suggests 
their  relation  to  the  rest.  All  three,  though  with  some  diversity 
of  circumstances,  report  the  cure  of  the  man  or  the  men  among 
the  tombs,  as  if  it  seemed  to  them  the  most  characteristic  and 
remarkable.  All  three  speak,  St.  Matthew  more  than  once,  of 
the  way  in  which  the  Pharisees  explained  these  miracles,  "  He 
casteth  out  devils  by  the  Prince  of  the  devils."  All  record  His 
argument  in  answer  to  that  charge,  "  A  house  divided  against 
itself  cannot  stand."  All  record  these  words,  two  of  them  in 
direct  connection  with  this  charge,  "  Wherefore  I  say  unto  you, 
all  manner  of  sin  and  blasphemy  shall  be  forgiven  unto  men  ; 
but  the  blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Ghost  shall  not  be  forgiven  :  " 
words  which  even  without  St.  Mark's  divine  explanation,  ''  be- 
cause they  said  he  had  Timmclean  spirit,"  would  lead  us  naturally 
to  the  conclusion,  that  their  sin  consisted,  not  in  denying  the 
power  of  Christ,  but  in  calling  good  evil,  and  evil  good  ;  a  state 
of  mind  implying  a  hatred  of  God's  character  and  essence.  All 
the  Evangelists  again  agree  in  attributing  to  our  Lord  these 
words,  which  are  so  utterly  perplexing  and  baffling  to  any  one 
who  regards  the  signs  and  powers  which  Christ  exhibited  merely 


24  LECTURE   I. 

as  Startling  portents,  "  If  I  by  Beelzebub  cast  out  devils,  by  whom 
do  your  children  cast  them  out?  Therefore  shall  they  be  your 
judges."  In  what  possible  senses  could  their  sons  be  their 
judges  ?  Was  the  power  with  which  they  wrought  then  like  His 
power  ?  If  he  was  the  true  King  of  the  world,  all  power  which 
had  ever  been  exerted  was  His  power  ;  He  was  come  to  show 
from  whence  such  power  was  derived ;  and  therefore  if  His 
power  was  evil,  all  the  power  which  was  ever  exerted  by  any 
Jewish  physician  for  the  healing  of  diseases,  or  the  removal  of 
madness,  was  evil  also. 

Lastly,  all  the  Evangelists  agree  in  connecting  faith  in  the 
subject,  with  most,  if  not  all,  these  acts  of  power.  Now  if  the 
miracles  were  merely,  or  chiefly,  evidences  of  a  divine  mission, 
unconnected  with  the  nature  and  character  of  that  mission,  one 
would  rather  have  expected  that  the  displays  would  have  been 
most  startling  and  overwhelming  where  the  unbelief  was  most 
obstinate.  In  most  legendary  records  it  is  contrived  so.  The 
faith  is  the  effect  of  the  surprising  spectacle  ;  it  is  wrought  in  the 
most  reluctant.  Whereas  if  these  s'igns  and  powers  were  but  the 
tokens  and  manifestations  of  the  p/esence  of  One  who  came  to 
claim  the  human  spirit  as  His  subject,  and  to  raise  it  out  of  sub- 
jection to  other  masters,  we  perceive  at  once  that  there  is  some- 
thing more  regal  and  more  mysterious  in  an  act  which  calls  out 
the  man  himself  into  trust  and  hope,  than  in  that  which  merely 
rectifies  the  energies  of  his  body  or  even  of  his  mind.  Not  only 
the  limb  is  straightened,  not  only  the  issue  of  blood  is  stanched, 
but  the  person  who  wields  the  limb,  through  whose  veins  the 
blood  flows,  is  called  into  existence  and  health  by  the  voice  of 
the  life-giver. 

These  remarks  cannot  be  new  to  any  one  ;  they  are  of  worth 
only  so  far  as  they  set  in  order  thoughts  with  which  we  are  all 
familiar.  No  reader  of  the-Gospels  has  ever  doubted  that  the 
graciousness  or  benignity  of  Christ's  miracles  was  part  of  their 
very  nature.  That  quality  has  been  brought  forward  by  writers 
on  evidence  with  more  labor  and  particularity  than  was  at  all 
needful ;  for  the  heart  receives  such  impressions  the  more  read- 


THE    NEW    AND    OLD    GARMENT.  2$ 

ily,  and  the  more  deeply,  if  they  are  not  forced  upon  it.  Tlie 
apparent  exceptions  in  the  curse  upon  the  fig-tree,  and  the  de- 
struction of  the  swine,  have  been  accounted  for  with  painful  in- 
genuity, as  if  our  consciences  required  to  be  convinced  that  a 
moral  lesson,  which  is  to  work  for  the  cure  of  human  beings,  may 
be  obtained  by  the  death  of  a  tree  or  an  animal.  What  I  desire 
is  that  we  should  follow  out  the  conviction  which  such  expres- 
sions imply,  and  should  acknowledge  that  the  Evangelists  looked 
upon  these  miracles  as  methods  by  which  the  great  Deliverer  was 
revealing  himself  in  that  character,  was  actually  breaking  the 
fetters  by  which  human  bodies  as  well  as  spirits  were  bound.  In 
that  way  all  the  other  miracles  which  the  Evangelists  record  will 
be  felt,  I  think,  to.  have  their  own  wonderful  suitableness  in  the 
divine  economy,  for  the  after  as  well  as  the  immediate  instruc- 
tion of  men,  especially  to  emancipate  them  from  their  supersti- 
tions. For  the  disciples  to  learn  that  the  winds  and  waves  were 
subject  to  their  Master,  for  the  multitude  to  feel  that  it  was  He 
who  gave  them  their  bread,  was  as  needful  as  that  they  should 
feel  that  He  restored  the  decayed  powers  of  the  body  and  the 
soul.  Jews  required  such  a  lesson,  for  they  were  as  prone  now, 
as  in  former  days,  to  tremble  before  the  powers  of  nature,  and 
to  think  that  man  lived  by  bread  alone,  and  not  by  the  word  of 
God.  But  what  a  lesson  was  also  in  reserve  for  the  worshippers 
of  Neptune,  Ceres,  ^sculapius  !  what  a  witness  to  them  that  the 
powers  which  they  supposed  were  divided  amidst  different 
capricious  deities,  were  really  gathered  up  in  the  one  Lord  and 
Friend  of  man  ! 

PUBLICANS  AND  PHARISEES.       THE  NEW  AND  OLD  GARMENT. 

All  the  three  Evangelists  give  the  following  narrative  nearly  in 
the  same  order,  the  name  of  Matthew  in  one  being  exchanged 
for  that  of  Levi  in  the  two  others :  "  And  as  Jesus  passed  forth 
from  thence,  he  saw  a  man,  named  Matthew,  sitting  at  the  receipt 
of  custom  :  and  He  said  unto  him.  Follow  me.  And  he  arose, 
and  followed  Him.      And  it  came  to  pass,  as  Jesus  sat  at  meat 


26  LECTURE    I. 

in  the  house,  behold  many  publicans  and  sinners  came  and  sat 
down  with  Him  and  his  disciples.  And  when  the  Pharisees  saw 
it,  they  said  unto  His  disciples,  Wliy  eateth  your  Master  with 
publicans  and  sinner*  ?  But  when  Jesus  heard  that.  He  said 
unto  them,  They  that  be  whole  need  not  a  physician,  but  they 
that  are  sick.  But  go  ye,  and  learn  what  that  meaneth,  I  will 
hav^e  mercy,  and  not  sacrifice  ;  for  I  am  not  come  to  call  the 
righteous,  but  sinners  to  repentance.  Then  came  to  Him  the 
disciples  of  John,  saying.  Why  do  we  and  the  Pharisees  fast  oft, 
but  thy  disciples  fast  not  ?  And  Jesus  said  unto  them.  Can  the 
children  of  the  bridechamber  mourn  as  lono:  as  the  bridegfroom 
is  with  them  .?  But  the  days  will  come  when  the  bridegroom 
shall  be  taken  from  them,  and  then  shall  they  fast.  No  man 
putteth  a  piece  of  new  cloth  into  an  old  garment,  for  that  which 
is  put  in  to  fill  it  up  taketh  from  the  garment,  and  the  rent  is 
made  worse.  Neither  do  men  put  new  wine  into  old  bottles,  else 
the  bottles  break,  and  the  wine  runneth  out,  and  the  bottles 
perish.  But  they  put  new  wine  into  new  bottles,  and  both  are 
preserved."  I  may  seem  to  be  joining  together  two  passages 
which  have  no  direct  relation  to  each  other.  But  I  am  endeavor- 
ing to  follow  the  Evangelists  strictly ;  and  where  I  find  them  all 
agreeing  in  the  same  order,  I  take  it  for  granted  that  they  felt 
the  connection  in  the  parts  of  their  story,  and  wished  to  make  us 
feel  it.  I  think  the  minds  of  their  simplest  readers  have  re- 
sponded to  their  intention.  They  have  perceived  that  the  ques- 
tion of  John's  disciples  naturally  rose  out  of  our  Lord's  answer 
to  the  Pharisees,  and  that  His  similitudes  of  the  new  and  old 
garments,  and  of  the  new  and  old  bottles,  were  intended  to  ex- 
plain a  very  deep  ground  for  the  difference  between  the  position 
of  His  disciples  and  that  of  the  disciples  of  the  Pharisees  or  of 
John. 

I.  In  the  call  of  Levi,  or  Matthew,  we  discover  at  once  the 
same  assertion  of  a  power  over  the  will  of  the  person  spoken  to, 
which  was  indicated  in  the  call  of  Andrew  and  Simon,  James  and 
John.  The  words  used  do  not  in  the  least  answer  to  our  notion 
of  a  disciple  attaching  himself  to   a  master,  from   some  prefer- 


THE    NEW    AND    OLD    GARMENT.  2/ 

ence  ;  they  convey,  in  the  plainest  manner,  the  idea  of  One 
speaking  who  had  authority, — an  authority  which  the  conscience 
and  heart  recognized,  though  there  was  nothing  in  the  outward 
appearance  to  support  it. 

II.  But  Matthew  is  not  a  fisherman  ;  he  is  a  rich  tax-gatherer. 
As  soon  as  he  has  obeyed  the  call,  he  gathers  about  him  men  of 
his  own  class,  and  invites  his  Master  to  eat  with  them.  The 
members  of  this  class  had  not  merely  a  bad  reputation.  A  num- 
ber of  them  must  have  been  extortioners  ;  and  the  general  dis- 
like felt  for  them  must  have  thrown  them  into  the  company  of 
people  deserving  to  be  called  sinners.  To  suppose  that  Mat- 
thew's company  consisted  merely  of  persons  who  had  acquired 
that  name  through  the  prejudice  of  the  Pharisees,  is  to  twist  the 
letter  of  the  Gospel,  and  I  conceive  still  more  entirely  to  set 
aside  its  meaning.  Now  the  Pharisees  do  not  complain  of  our 
Lord  for  showing  kindness  or  condescension  to  these  wTong- 
doers,  but  for  mixing  with  them  as  if  they  were  friends,  for  eat- 
ing and  drinking  with  them.  Did  not  the  analogy  of  the  Law 
justify  them  in  doing  so.?  Was  it  not  a  part  of  righteousness  to 
avoid  the  contact  of  impurity.?  The  Evangelist  does  not  sug- 
gest any  answer  to  these  questions.  He  over-reaches  them  all 
with  the  words,  "  They  that  be  whole  need  not  a  physician,  but 
they  that  be  sick."  If  he  looked  upon  his  Master  as  the  King 
of  Men,  who  had  come  to  restore  an  order  which  had  been 
violated,  such  language  was  natural.  If  he  believed  that  in  Plim 
dwelt  that  righteousness  which  all  the  precepts  of  the  Law  were 
trying  to  set  forth,  and  that  He  was  come  to  establish  that 
righteousness  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  had  gone  furthest  astray 
from  it,  the  proverb  had  a  most  true  and  obvious  application.  If, 
in  other  words,  he  felt  that  the  Kingdom  of  our  Lord  was  that 
kingdor-.i  over  men  which  had  been  lying  beneath  all  legal  rules 
and  ordinances,  and  which  was  to  assert  its  own  power,  by  ful- 
filling their  purpose,  even  when  it  seemed  most  to  dispense  with 
them,  one  can  feel  how  consistent  this  story  is  with  all  that  has 
gone  before.  Upon  any  other  view  of  the  case  it  would  seem  as 
if  the  Pharisees'  objection  was  un refuted. 


2S  LECTURE    I. 

III.  But  if  this  explanation  is  adopted,  tlie  difficulty  of  John's 
disciples,  though  a  very  different  one  from  that  of  the  Pharisees, 
admitted  of  a  similar  solution.  John's  disciples  might  remember 
that  their  master  had  gained  a  more  ready  hearing  from  pub- 
licans and  sinners  than  from  scribes  and  Pharisees.  They  could 
not  forget  the  phrase,  "generation  of  vipers,"  which  they  had 
heard  applied  to  those  of  the  last  class  who  came  to  his  baptism. 
But  then  was  not  his  most  obvious  characteristic,  self-restraint, 
indifference  to  the  good  things  of  the  flesh  ?  Was  not  this  the 
characteristic  which  he  would  especially  have  wished  his  dis- 
ciples to  imitate,  even  though  in  imitating  it  they  might  adopt 
the  rules  and  practices  of  the  Pharisees  ?  The  eating  and  drink- 
ing of  the  new  Teacher,  was  it  not  directly  at  variance  with  this 
lesson  and  these  habits  ?  It  was  not  so  much  the  character  of 
the  company  which  startled  them,  as  the  fact  that  a  Teacher  of 
righteousness  should  lead  his  followers  into  places  of  entertain- 
ment at  all.  Why  was  not  fasting  as  much  to  be  the  sign  of 
them  as  of  the  schools  which  had  preceded  them  ?  The  first 
answer  is,  "  The  bridegroom  is  with  them."  A  strange  expression 
surely  for  the  teaclier  of  a  school  to  use,  one  altogether  perplex- 
ing and  beyond  the  circle  of  the  associations  which  such  a 
character  suggests.  Yet  not  a  novel  association  to  those  who 
had  read  the  forty-fifth  Psalm,  to  those  who  had  heard  of  a  King 
greatly  delighting  in  the  beauty  of  his  affianced  Bride,  of  "his 
riding  on  because  of  truth,  and  meekness,  and  righteousness,  of 
her  forsaking  her  father's  house  that  she  might  dwell  with  him. 
I  do  not  now  examine  into  the  force  of  these  expressions.  I 
merely  say  that  the  effect  of  the  phraseology  upon  the  mind  of  a 
Jew  would  inevitably  be  to  connect  the  person  who  applied  it  to 
himself  with  mysterious  ideas  of  royalty  and  divinity.  The  disciples 
could  not  fast  because  they  had  attained  the  end  for  which  the 
fasting  was  ordained,  the  apprehension  and  discovery  of  the 
Lord  and  Ruler  of  their  spirits.  There  would  come  a  time  when 
there  should  be  a  sense  of  being  deprived  of  that  object,  and 
then  would  they  fast  in  those  days. 

But  the  idea  is  much  more  fully  brought  out  in  the  second  part 


THE  APPOINTMENT  OF  THE  APOSTLES.         29 

of  the  answer.  No  one,  I  believe,  has  ever  doubted  that  the  old 
garment  and  the  old  bottles  referred  to  the  institutions  of  the 
ancient  economy  ;  the  new  garment  and  the  new  bottles,  to  those 
which  Christ  would  establish.  Every  one  has  seen  that  in  some 
way  or  other  our  Lord  meant  to  say,  that  it  would  be  mis- 
chievous merely  to  re-enact  the  forms  and  customs  which  had 
belonged  to  the  past,  until  the  substance  and  the  life,  of  which 
customs  and  forms  are  the  outside,  had  been  brought  out  and 
revealed.  But  surely  if  His  Kingdom  was  not  the  everlasting 
Kingdom,  which  all  Jewish  institutions  had  been  imperfectly  ex- 
hibiting, these  comparisons,  and  the  argument  which  is  founded 
upon  them,  would  not  hold  good.  He  would  be  substituting 
new  bottles  for  the  old,  not  expressing  the  wine  which  was  to  fill 
the  bottles.  No  more  beautiful  illustration  could  be  conceived 
of  the  assertion  that  the  Kingdom  of  God,  when  it  had  once  un- 
folded itself,  would  work  out  a  drapery  fitted  for  itself,  and  that 
it  would  not  merely  make  use  of  that  drapery  which  belonged  to 
it  when  it  was  yet  undeveloped.  But  if  that  were  not  the  inten- 
tion of  the  Evangelists,  one  must  feel  that  they  used  illustrations, 
apparently  of  the  most  simple  and  natural  kind,  with  most  artifi- 
cial and  unreal  signification. 

THE    APPOINTMENT    OF    THE    APOSTLES. 

"  And  when  He  had  called  unto  Him  his  twelve  disciples,  He 
gave  them  power  over  unclean  spirits  to  cast  them  out,  and  to 
heal  all  manner  of  sickness  and  all  manner  of  disease."  Then 
follow  the  names  of  the  Apostles.  "  These  twelve  Jesus  sent 
forth  and  commanded  them,  saying.  Go  not  into  the  way  of  the 
Gentiles,  and  into  any  city  of  the  Samaritans  enter  ye  not ;  but 
go  rather  unto  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel.  And  as  ye 
go,  preach,  saying.  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at. hand.  Heal 
the  sick,  cleanse  the  lepers,  raise  the  dead,  cast  out  devils  :  freely 
ye  have  received,  freely  give.  Provide  neither  gold,  nor  silver, 
nor  brass  in  your  purses,  nor  scrip  for  your  journey  ;  neither  two 
coats,  neither  shoes  nor  yet  staves :  for  the  workman   is  worthy 


30  LECTURE    I. 

of  his  meat.  And  into  whatsoever  city  or  house  ye  shall  enter, 
inquire  who  in  it  is  worthy,  and  there  abide  till  ye  go  thence. 
And  when  ye  come  into  an  house  salute  it,  and  if  the  house  be 
worthy,  let  your  peace  come  on  it ;  but  if  it  be  not  worthy, 
let  your  peace  return  to  you.  And  whosoever  shall  not  re- 
ceive you,  nor  hear  your  words,  when  ye  depart  out  of  that 
house  or  city,  shake  off  tlie  dust  of  your  feet."  This  passage  dif- 
fers in  a  few  particulars  from  those  which  correspond  to  it  in  St. 
Mark  and  St.  Luke.  The  calling  of  the  Apostles  is  separated  by 
both  of  them  from  their  designation  to  their  work.  Our  Lord's 
commands  to  them  are  much  more  minute  and  detailed  in  the 
tenth  chapter  of  St.  Matthew  than  in  the  sixth  of  St.  Mark  and 
in  the  ninth  of  St.  Luke.  Some  of  them  are  transferred  by  St. 
Luke  to  the  seventy  disciples.  But  the  words  which  I  have 
quoted,  with  the  exception  of  those  respecting  the  Gentiles  and 
the  Samaritans,  belong  to  all  three.  I  do  not  know  that  it  is 
necessary  to  dwell  on  the  importance  which  the  Evangelists 
evidently  attach  to  this  commission.  Every  one  feels  it  and 
admits  it.  It  would  be  the  greatest  waste  of  time  to  argue  or  to 
prove  that  our  Lord  speaks  to  His  Apostles  constantly  as  the 
heralds  of  a  Kingdom,  as  men  entrusted  with  spiritual  powers, 
as  men  who  are  to  be  the  founders  of  a  society,  as  men  whose 
immediate  task  was  to  be  the  precursors  of  infinitely  higher  tasks 
which  were  to  be  committed  to  them  hereafter.  "  All  this,  it  will 
be  said,  is  just  what  we  might  have  expected ;  it  is  an  ex  post 
facto  list  of  directions.  The  Evangelists  wrote  with  the  experi- 
ence of  what  the  Apostles  had  dorte,  they  antedated  events  which 
they  themselves  had  possibly  witnessed,  or  which  were  handed 
down  to  them."  What  I  wish  to  remark  is  simply,  that  this  nar- 
rative is  in  exact  keeping  with  all  that  has  gone  before.  John 
the  Baptist  came  announcing  that  a  Kingdom  was  at  hand.  Our 
Lord  preached,  "  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at  hand  ; "  the 
twelve  were  sent  forth  with  the  same  message.  The  Kingdom 
which  John  announced  was  evidently  a  Kingdom  over  the  spirit 
of  man.  He  said  that  the  person  who  came  after  him  would 
baptize  with  the  Spirit.     All  the  acts  by  which  Christ  is   said  to 


THE    SABBATH-DAY.  31 

have  testified  of  His  Kingdom,  were  acts  of  spiritual  power,  acts 
of  dominion  over  spirits.  The  same  powers  are  said  to  be  com- 
mitted to  the  Apostles  for  the  same  purpose.  Every  thing  cer- 
tainly in  the  tone  of  thought,  in  the  deliberate,  and  in  the 
accidental  expressions  of  the  Evangelists,  where  they  agree,  and 
where  they  vary,  intimate  a  settled  persuasion  in  their  minds, 
that  they  are  describing  the  acts  of  a  Ruler,  of  One  who  had 
ruled  in  times  past,  and  would  give  mightier  evidence  of  His 
rule  in  the  times  to  come,  who  had  called  out  the  twelve  tribes 
to  be  His  national  witnesses,  who  was  now  preparing  men  who 
should  at  once  represent  those  tribes,  and  should  carry  out  the 
purpose  for  which  they  were  chosen,  to  all  the  families  of  the 
earth.  There  is  no  faltering  in  their  statements  on  this  subject, 
no  occasional  forgetfulness  of  this  idea,  and  substitution  of  an- 
other ;  it  is  the  assumption  that  pervades  the  whole  narrative  ; 
it  is  not  forced  on  our  attention  anywhere,  it  makes  itself  felt 
everywhere. 

THE    SABBATH-DAY. 

"  At  that  time  Jesus  went  on  the  sabbath-day  through  the  corn  ; 
and  His  disciples  were  an  hungered,  and  began  to  pluck  the  ears 
of  corn,  and  to  eat.  But  when  the  Pharisees  saw  it,  they  said 
unto  Him,  Behold,  thy  disciples  do  that  which  is  not  lawful  to 
do  upon  the  sabbath-day.  But  He  said  unto  them.  Have  ye  not 
read  what  David  did  when  he  was  an  hungered,  and  they  that  were 
with  him,  how  he  entered  into  the  House  of  God,  and  did  eat  the 
shew-bread,  which  was  not  lawful  for  him  to  eat,  neither  for  them 
which  were  with  him,  but  only  for  the  priests  ?  Or  have  ye  not 
read  in  the  Law,  how  that  on  the  sabbath-days  the  priests  in  the 
temple  profane  the  sabbath,  and  are  blameless  .<*  But  I  say  unto 
you.  That  in  this  place  is  One  greater  than  the  temple.  But  if 
ye  had  known  what  this  meaneth,  I  will  have  mercy,  and  not 
sacrifice,  ye  would  not  have  condemned  the  guiltless.  For  the 
Son  of  Man  is  Lord  even  of  the  sabbath-day ....  And,  behold, 
there  was  a  man  which  had  his  hand  withered,  and  they  asked 
Him,  saying.  Is  it  lawful  to  heal  on  the  sabbath-days  ?  that  they 


32  LECTURE    I. 

might  accuse  Him.  And  He  said  unto  them,  What  man  shall 
there  be  among  you,  which  shall  have  one  sheep,  and  if  it  fall 
into  a  pit  on  the  sabbath-day,  will  he  not  lay  hold  on  it,  and  lift 
it  out  ?  How  much  then  is  a  man  better  than  a  sheep  ?  Where- 
fore it  is  lawful  to  do  well  on  the  sabbath-days."  The  story  of 
the  corn-fields,  and  that  of  the  man  with  the  withered  hand,  occur 
in  all  the  three  Evangelists.  Each  one  dwells  with  special  em- 
phasis on  this  and  the  other  complaints  of  the  Pharisees  respect- 
ing our  Lord's  neglect  of  the  sabbath-day.  All  speak  of  it  as 
the  first  great  provocation  which  led  them  to  hold  a  council 
against  Him  that  they  might  destroy  Him.  St.  Mark  says  this 
was  the  occasion  on  which  He  looked  round  on  them  with  anger, 
being  grieved  for  the  hardness  of  their  hearts.  St.  Luke  recurs 
again  and  again  to  the  subject.  The  first  narrative  is  in  his 
fourth  chapter,  the  next  in  the  thirteenth,  the  third  in  the  four- 
teenth. Considering  the  brevity  of  the  Evangelical  histories,  it 
is  surprising  how  much  space  is  devoted  to  this  subject,  and  how 
much  the  writers  seem  to  have  felt  that  it  was  necessary  to  the 
illustration  of  our  Lord's  life.  But  why  should  this  be  so  ?  The 
sabbath  was  undoubtedly  one  of  the  most  memorable  Jewish  in- 
stitutions. Supposing  there  was  a  pharisaical  excess  of  extrav- 
agance in  the  observation  of  it,  might  we  not  have  expected  a 
great  teacher  to  have  pointed  out  the  equal  or  greater  danger  of 
the  opposite  tendency  to  which  the  Sadducees  probably  were 
liable  ?  This  was  no  case  of  a  tradition  of  the  elders  ;  it  w^as  a 
positive  commandment,  like  that  of  honoring  father  and  mother. 
And  yet  the  whole  weight  of  the  example  and  authority  of  Jesus 
seems  thrown  into  the  scale  of  permission  and  toleration,  which 
we  might  suppose  would  be  already  the  heaviest. 

"  The  Son  of  Man,"  says  St.  Matthew,  "  is  Lord  also  of  the 
sabbath-day."  "  The  sabbath  was  made  for  man,"  says  St.  Mark, 
"  not  man  for  the  sabbath  ;  therefore  the  Son  of  Man  is  Lord  of 
the  sabbath."  St.  Luke  repeats  the  last  words,  connecting  them 
directly  with  the  act  of  David  in  eating  the  shew-bread.  Here 
we  have  an  explanation  supplied  by  the  Evangelists  themselves, 
of  the   importance  which  they  attach   to  these   dialogues.     He 


THE    SABBATH-DAY.  "  33 

who  had  instituted  the  sabbath-day,  He  of  whom  it  had  testified, 
was  come  to  assert  His  own  dominion  over  it,  to  declare  what 
he  had  meant  by  it.  That  lordship  was  denied  by  the  Pharisees, 
that  meaning  was  wholly  set  aside.  It  was  not  an  error  of  ex- 
cess. It  was  a  dreadful,  fatal  contradiction  of  the  whole  nature 
and  essence  of  this  commandment,  and  of  all  the  command- 
ments. They  had  no  feeling  that  the  sabbath  was  meant  for 
man  ;  how  could  they  enter  into  the  force  of  the  words,  "  Thou 
shalt  rest,  and  thy  man-servant,  and  thy  maid-servant,  and  the 
stranger  that  is  within  thy  gates  ? "  What  cared  the  Pharisee 
for  the  man-servant,  or  the  maid-servant,  or  the  stranger.''  What 
they  cared  for  was  the  day,  abstractedly,  nakedly,  divested  of  all 
its  life  and  associations.  To  it  the  man-servant,  the  maid- 
servant, the  stranger,  were  to  be  sacrificed.  Then  how  could 
they  look  upon  the  Son  of  Man,  who  had  come  as  the  King  and 
Deliverer  of  man-servants,  and  maid-servants,  and  strangers,  as 
the  Lord  of  this  day.-*  How  could  they  welcome  such  a  Person 
at  all,  coming  with  such  an  object,  while  their  whole  spirits  were 
concentrated  in  the  mere  husk  of  the  institution  ?  I  say  the 
husk,  not  the  letter ;  for  they  could  not  read  the  letter.  The 
letter  witnessed  against  them  ;  it  spoke  of  the  relation  between 
man  and  God,  of  God  sharing  man's  labor,  and  of  man  sharing 
God's  rest.  It  proclaimed  the  very  truth  which  the  Pharisees 
were  denying  when  they  called  Christ  a  blasphemer.  All  the 
latent  inhumanity,  as  well  as  the  real  Atheism  of  the  Pharisee, 
lay  wrapt  in  his  feelings  about  the  sabbath-day.  Was  it  wonder- 
ful that  he  should  hold  a  council  against  Christ  for  the  acts  and 
words  which  brought  these  feelings  to  light.'*  Was  it  wonderful 
that  the  holiest  and  divinest  anger  should  have  been  awakened 
by  the  awful  contradiction  of  men  turning  the  commandment  of 
God  into  a  practical  denial  of  Him  ?  But  all  this  profound  mo- 
rality is  inexplicable,  all  this  wonderful  assertion  of  the  principle 
which  the  Pharisees  were  undermining  is  reduced  to  nothing,  if 
the  Gospels  were  not,  as  they  pretend  to  be,  primarily  and 
throughout,  the  history  of  a  Son  of  God,  and  a  King  of  Men. 

3 


34 


LECTURE    I. 


THE    PARABLES. 


Nearly  the  whole  of  the  thirteenth  Chapter  of  St.  Matthew's 
Gospel  is  devoted  to  our  Lord's  parables.  Many  others  occur 
in  the  after  chapters  of  his  Gospel ;  St.  Mark  records  but  few. 
There  is  nothing  in  which  St.  Luke  is  so  characteristically  dis- 
tinguished from  both  the  other  Evangelists,  as  in  his  selection 
of  parables.  There  are  three  which  are  common  to  all  these 
Gospels,  the  parable  of  the  Sower,  the  parable  of  the  Mustard- 
seed,  and  the  parable  of  the  Lord  of  the  vineyard  and  the  hus- 
bandmen. 

I  propose  to  consider  each  of  them,  with  as  much  of  the  con- 
text as  all  the  Evangelists  have  thought  needful  for  their  eluci- 
dation. 

I.  The  Sower  is  treated  in  every  Gospel  as  a  specimen  of 
this  mode  of  teaching.  The  explanation  of  it  is  connected  in  all 
with  the  reason  for  speaking  in  parables.  It  deserves,  there- 
fore, very  especial  attention.  We  may  hope  to  learn  from  it 
whether  the  teaching  of  our  Lord  confirms  or  weakens  the  con- 
clusion which  we  have  drawn  from  His  Baptism,  His  temptation. 
His  mirticles.  His  arguments  with  opponents.  We  may,  per- 
haps, begin  our  enquiry  with  our  Lord's  answer  to  the  disciples' 
question,  which  was  suggested  by  the  parable  of  the  sower,  "  Why 
speakest  Thou  unto  them  in  parables  ?  He  answered  and  said. 
Because  unto  you  it  is  given  to  know  the  mysteries  of  the  king- 
dom of  heaven,  but  unto  them  it  is  not  given." 

These  words  at  once  connect  the  parables  with  the  phrase 
which  has  already  encountered  us  so  often,  and  which  thus  far 
has  borne  a  definite  and  uniform  signification.  Only  we  have 
here  the  word  "  mysteries  "  for  the  first  time  associated  with  the 
word  "kingdom."  How  associated?  Were  not  the  Apostles 
then  to  preach  the  kingdom  of  God  ?  Was  the  information 
which  their  Master  communicated  to  them  respecting  it  esoteric, 
intended  for  their  own  use,  or  for  that  of  a  set  of   initiated  dis- 


THE    PARABLES.  35 

ciples  whom  they  should  gather  round  them  ?  If  this  were  so,  it 
would  be  difficult  indeed  to  reconcile  the  use  of  parables  with 
the  other  part  of  these  records,  a  difficulty  which  would  not  be 
the  least  diminished  by  attributing  any  amount  of  imposition  and 
self-glorification  to  the  minds  of  the  Evangelists.  Everywhere 
else  they  are  endeavoring  to  set  forth  their  Master  in  contrast 
with  the  learned  doctors  of  the  Jewish  schools,  as  the  Teacher 
of  the  poor  and  the  ignorant.  Here  they  would  be  gratuitously 
admitting  that  they  had  received  a  peculiar  and  special  instruc- 
tion, which  at  the  same  moment  they  were  with  ludicrous  sim- 
plicity divulging.  But  when  we  look  at  the  discourse  itself,  we 
find  it  still  more  difficult  to  maintain  this  view  of  the  case.  The 
interpretation  of  the  parable  of  the  Sower  was  evidently  that 
which  they  were  by  all  possible  means  to  make  their  hearers  ac- 
quainted with.  They  were  instructed  themselves  in  the  hinder- 
ances  which  prevented  the  Word  from  taking  root  and  bringing 
forth  fruit,  on  purpose  that  they  might  warn  others  of  those 
hinderances.  I  speak  to  them  in  parables,  because  they  cannot 
receive  the  lesson  I  wish  to  impart  in  any  other  way.  The  thing 
is  hidden  from  them,  and  this  my  discourse  will  tell  you  why  it  is 
hidden  from  them,  where  the  veil  is,  how,  and  by  whom  it  has 
been  drawn.  Their  own  inner  life  was  concealed  from  the  mul- 
titude, because  their  hearts  had  waxed  gross  and  their  ears  were 
dull  of  hearing.  The  secret  operations  which  were  going  on 
there  were  just  those  which  they  had  no  perception  of.  The 
government  which  was  exercised  over  themselves,  over  their  own 
hearts  and  spirits,  could  only  be  made  known  to  them  through 
outward  things  with  which  their  eyes  were  conversant.  Even 
these  they  observed  very  imperfectly,  often  scarcely  at  all.  It 
was  a  discovery,  a  revelation,  to  remind'them  of  the  secret  pro- 
cesses by  which  the  seed  was  transformed  into  the  stalk,  and  the 
ear,  and  the  full  corn  in  the  ear.  The  world  of  nature  was  to 
them  almost  as  is  a  landscape  to  a  blind  man's  eye ;  still  they 
could  not  be  quite  unconscious  of  facts  with  which  they  were 
every  day  occupied.  They  might  be  awakened  to  an  observation 
of  these ;  they  might  be  led  to  perceive  an  order  in  the  things 


36  LECTURE    I. 

about  them,  in  the  >vorks  of  nature  and  of  man,  with  which  they 
were  most  familiar  ;  thence  they  might  be  led  to  discover  the 
traces  of  an  order  and  dominion  nearer  to  themselves,  one  work- 
ing continually  for  their  discipline  and  deliverance. 

Those,  on  the  other  hand,  who  were  feeling,  however  confus- 
edly, after  the  light  and  knowledge  which  most  nearly  concerned 
themselves,  who  cared  less  for  the  earth,  and  its  seeds,  and  its 
fruits  than  to  be  set  free  from  their  ignorance,  than  to  be  made 
right  and  true  within,  the  hearts  which  craved  for  guidance  and 
sought  in  their  weariness  for  a  resting  place  and  a  home,  the 
children  who  were  crying  for  a  Father,  had  an  immediate  hold 
upon  the  mysteries  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  ;  to  them  it  was 
given  to  know  them  :  the  others  saw  them  projected  outwardly 
in  the  sensible  world. 

Some  such  view  as  this,  I  think,  would  be  generally  taken  of 
this  language.  I  am  not  the  least  desirous  to  suggest  a  novel 
one,  but  merely  to  show  how  exactly  such  a  view  accords  with, 
and  carries  out  the  idea  of  a  Kingdom  which  has  the  first  and 
highest  sphere  of  its  operations  in  man's  inner  being,  but  which 
extends  into  every  part  of  his  life,  through  the  whole  of  society, 
thence  through  the  whole  intellectual  and  sentient  universe.  If 
we  supposed  the  actual  King  of  men  come  to  make  manifest  the 
nature  of  his  government  to  them,  to  show  them  what  rule  he 
had  been  exercising  over  them,  and  for  what  ends,  how  it  was 
thwarted,  why  they  were  unaware-  of  its  presence  ;  if  we  supposed 
that  King  of  Men  to  be  also  the  King  of  nature,  the  Creator  and 
Lord  of  the  world  in  which  men  is  dwelling,  if  we  supposed  Him 
to  have  made  that  world  especially  for  the  habitation  of  man,  to 
have  placed  him  in  the  centre  of  it,  to  have  ordered  it  according 
t-o  laws  which  could  only  perfectly  exhibit  themselves  when  they 
bore  upon  his  character  and  his  acts,  we  should  certainly  feel 
why  the  parable  of  the  Sower  must  be  the  key  to  all  parables, 
why  it  is  said  to  set  forth  a  mystery  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven, 
why  it  sets  forth  at  the  same  time  a  mystery  of  the  kingdom  of 
earth,  why  it  belongs  to  the  life  of  each  individual  man,  why  it 
has  the  closest  relation  to  the  history  of  the  race. 


THE    PARABLES.  37 

That  the  Son  of  Man  deposits  his  word  in  a  voluntary  being 
who  can  prevent  it  from  producing  its  regular  and  natural  effects, 
this  is  the  direct,  obvious  doctrine  of  the  parable.  The  corre- 
sponding fact  in  the  kingdom  of  nature  is  that  a  person  puts  a 
seed  into  the  ground  which  certain  qualities  in  the  ground  may 
make  unfruitful.  In  each  case  we  are  reminded  that  productive- 
ness is  the  law,  that  unproductiveness  is  the  anomaly,  the  result 
of  some  perversity,  and  yet  of  a  perversity  which  is  most  likely 
to  appear,  which  it  requires  a  power  not  existing  in  the  human 
or  in  the  natural  subject  to  remove.  Each  is  intended  to  receive 
that  power,  to  submit  to  it ;  then  all  its  latent  capacities  are  dis- 
covered and  unfolded  ;  then  the  results  become  in  their  due 
season  visible.  In  each  case  the  processes  are  secret  and 
orderly;  in  each  case  the  disappointment  arises  from  the  pro- 
ductive power  not  penetrating  deeply  enough  into  the  ground  ; 
in  each  case  that  which  ultimately  appears  upon  the  surface  is  to 
the  eye  quite  different  from  that  which  was  the  cause  of  it. 
Dwell  upon  these  great  lines  and  landmarks  of  the  discourse,  try 
to  harmonize  them  in  your  mind,  and  you  arrive,  I  conceive,  at 
such  a  sense  of  the  reality  of  the  distinction  and  of  the  resem- 
blance of  the  two  great  spheres  which  compose  our  universe,  as 
no  definitions  or  philosophical  arrangement  can  give.  But  you 
feel  at  the  same  time  that  these  spheres  must  be  under  the 
authority  and  direction  of  a  Person,  that  the  phrase  "  Kingdom  " 
has  a  literal  and  not  a  metaphorical  application  to  them, .that  you 
could  not  choose  any  other  which  would  not  be  a  feeble  and 
awkward  exchange  for  it. 

II.  I  spoke  of  the  parable  of  the  Sower  as  relating  to  the  life 
of  the  race  as  well  as  to  the  life  of  the  individual.  If  it  is  the 
history  of  the  operation  of  the  Divine  Will  upon  human  wills, 
we  cannot  limit  it  to  a  number  of  particular  experiences.  The 
history  of  man  must  be  contained  in  it.  Nevertheless  I  can  quite 
acquiesce  in  the  common  feeling  that  this  parable  less  obviously 
concerns  the  movements  and  growth  of  human  society  than  cer- 
tain others.  I  can  readily  admit  the  parable  of  the  Mustard- 
seed  to  be,  as  it  is  commonly  said  to  be,  a  prophecy  of  the  future 


38  LECTURE    I. 

unfolding  of  the  Church  collectively.  But  then  I  must  ask  you 
to  observe  that  the  character  of  this  unfolding  is  essentially  the 
same  with  that  which  has  been  described  in  the  former  case. 
The  mustard-tree  cannot  have  been  the  greatest  or  stateliest  of 
the  trees  of  the  forest.  Its  greatness  and  stateliness  are  not  the 
subject  of  the  parable.  The  subject  is  clearly  the  growth,  first 
of  a  herb,  then  of  a  tree,  out  of  the  most  insignificant  of  all  seeds. 
Underground  processes  are  here  also  implied.'  The  Apostles 
had  already  heard  the  parable  of  the  Sower,  their  minds  had 
taken  in  to  some  extent  the  spirit  and  purport  of  it.  They  would 
needs  apply  the  interpretation  of  it  here  also ;  they  would  sup- 
pose that  the  mustard-seed,  like  that  which  brought  forth  the 
corn,  was  sown  and  watched  by  a  Divine  husbandman,  they  would 
conclude  that  it  was  planted  in  human  spirits,  that  these  were  by 
some  process  brought  into  such  unity  and  fellowship  that  they 
could  be  represen'-id  by  one  great  tree  with  many  branches.  Of 
course  I  do  not  suppose  any  elaborate  process  of  reasoning  to 
have  gone  on  in  the  minds  of  the  Galilaean  fisherman.  It  was 
the  beauty  of  this  scheme  of  instruction  that  such  processes  were 
not  needful  :  the  natural  image  united  to  the  experience  of  the 
spirit  within  supplied  the  place  of  them.  The  Divine  Teacher 
had  already  written  His  lessons  upon  the  sensible  world  ;  He 
had  only  to  open  the  eyes  of  His  Disciples  to  read  them  there. 
The  one  tree  with  its  different  branches,  and  the  fowls  of  the 
air  at  last  lodging  in  them,  though  it  was  only  an  imperfect  rep- 
resentation of  spiritual  unity  and  of  all  the  diverse  and  living 
forms  in  which  it  exhibits  itself,  was  still  a  far  closer  approxima- 
tion to  that  reality  than  any  discussions  about  unity  in  the 
schools  could  possibly  give  birth  to.  The  image  bore  witness 
that  no  artificial  or  deliberate  combination  of  different  persons 
and  wills,  just  as  no  combination  of  leaves  and  branches,  could 
produce  the  oneness  ;  that  it  must  have  a  root  underneath  the 
soil,  that  an  original  unity  must  be  the  ground  of  the  diversity, 
not  the  result  of  it.  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  then  in  the  par- 
able of  the  Mustard-seed  presents  itself  to  us  under  a  new  aspect, 
but  as  preserving  the  same   essential   characteristic.     There  is 


THE    PARABLES. 


39 


One  who  is   ruling,  One   in   whom  it  consists,  One  from   whose 
secret  life  it  receives  all  its  different  energies. 

III.  Still  it  will  be  observed  that  one  element  in  the  Gospel- 
narratives  seems  to  be  wanting  in  both  these  parables.  It  is 
affirmed  that  the  sower  of  the  seed  is  the  Son  of  Man  ;  the 
growth  of  the  mustard-seed  is  the  growth  of  a  kingdom  ;  a  king 
is  implied  in  it.  But  is  this  Son  of  Man,  this  King  of  men,  the 
Son  of  God  ?  Can  we  say  that  such  a  person  is  declared  to  be 
the  source  whence  all  the  agencies  and  instruments  are  derived, 
which  are  at  work  in  human  society  and  in  the  world  of  nature  ? 
I  said  there  was  a  third  parable  which  is  common  to  the  three 
Evangelists.  Each  one  of  them  dwells  upon  it  very  emphatically, 
as  that  parable  which  told  most  directly  upon  the  consciences  of 
the  chief  priests  and  scribes,  which  they  felt  was  spoken  against 
them,  and  which  stirred  them  up  to  seek  for  an  immediate  re- 
venge. A  vineyard,  it  is  said,  was  let  to  husbandmen  ;  the  owner 
of  it  sent  servant  after  servant  to  demand  the  fruits  ;  one  was 
beaten,  another  stoned.  "Last  of  all  he  sent  unto  them  his  son, 
saying.  They  will  reverence  my  son.  But  when  the  husbandmen 
saw  the  son,  they  said  among  themselves,  This  is  the  heir;  come, 
let  us  kill  him,  and  let  us  seize  on  his  inheritance.  And  they 
caught  him,  and  cast  him  out  of  the  vineyard,  and  slew  him. 
When  the  lord  therefore  of  the  vineyard  cometh,  wdiat  will  he  do 
unto  those  husbandmen  ?  They  say  unto  him,  He  will  miserably 
destroy  those  wicked  men,  and  will  let  out  his  vineyard  unto 
other  husbandmen,  which  shall  render  him  the  fruits  in  their 
seasons.  Jesus  said  unto  them,  Did  ye  never  read  in  the  Scrip- 
tures, The  stone  which  the  builders  rejected,  the  same  is  become 
the  head  of  the  corner  ?  this  was  the  Lord's  doing,  and  it  is  mar- 
vellous in  our  eyes." 

This  passage,  I  think  you  will  perceive,  is  in  very  striking  ac- 
cordance with  all  we  have  considered  previously,  (i)  A  Son  is 
represented  coming  forth  after  a  succession  of  servants,  but  it  is 
clearly  intimated  that  the  Son  was  before  the  servants.  The 
first  agent  in  all  the  works  of  God  declared  himself  last.  That 
power  was  revealed  to  whom  all  the  rest  were  subordinate,  and 


40  LECTURE    1. 

from  whom  they  were  derived.  (2)  He  came,  Hke  all  who  had 
been  before,  to  seek  the  fruits  of  the  vineyard,  or,  as  our  Lord 
Himself  interprets  it,  to  see  whether  those  to  whom  the  King- 
dom of  God  had  been  committed  were  worthy  of  such  a  trust. 
(3)  The  consummate  act  of  rebellion  arose  from  a  wish  to  claim 
the  inheritance.  The  husbandmen  would  not  acknowledge  the 
Son  because  they  would  not  acknowledge  a  Father.  They 
wished  to  appropriate  as  their  own  that  which  belonged  to  Him, 
which  they  could  only  hold,  as  the  son  held  it,  by  faith  in  Him, 
by  renouncing  themselves.  (4)  Thus  this  parable,  just  like  the 
preaching  of  John,  like  our  Lord's  own  preaching,  like  His  other 
discourses,  like  His  miracles,  is  looking  forward  to  a  judgment 
which  was  at  hand,  which  would  declare  that  the  axe  was  laid  to 
the  root  of  the  tree,  and  that  since  it  did  not  bear  good  fruit,  it 
would  be  hewn  down  and  cast  into  the  fire.  The  more  then  we 
look  into  these  parables,  those  which  belong  expressly  to  the  first 
three  Gospels,  and  are  wanting  in  the  fourth,  the  more  the  truth 
seems  brought  home  to  us,  that  it  cannot  have  been  the  first 
object  of  these  Evangelists  to  exhibit  to  us  a  human  teacher,  or 
a  set  of  maxims  and  examples  which  he  presented  ;  that  it  must 
have  been  their  first  object  to  declare  a  King  of  men  and  a  Son 
of  God,  who  came  to  show  forth  the  kingdom  which  was  implied 
in  the  Jewish  kingdom,  and  to  overthrow  the  one  by  establishing 
the  other. 

HEROD    HEARING    OF    CHRIST. 

"  At  that  time  Herod  the  tetrarch  heard  of  the  fame  of  Jesus, 
and  said  unto  his  servants,  This  is  John  the  Baptist ;  he  is  risen 
from  the  dead,  and  therefore  mighty  works  do  show  forth  them- 
selves in  him."  This  announcement  with  some  variations  occurs 
in  all  the  three  Evangelists.  In  the  first  two  the  narrative  of 
John's  death  is  appended  to  it.  I  introduce  it  because  I  do  not 
wish  to  pass  over  any  passage  which  is  common  to  them,  even 
if  it  seems  insignificant.  1  do  not  think  this  is  insignificant, 
especially  when  it  is   connected  with  a  passage  which  we  shall 


THE    SIGN    FROM    HEAVEN.  '  4I 

meet  with  presentl}-,  and  with  some  which  will  be  considered 
afterwards  in  the  fourth  Gospel.  The  question  of  the  relation 
between  our  Lord  and  John  the  Baptist  bears  in  a  very  remark- 
able manner  upon  the  history  of  early  Christian  opinions,  and 
has  a  close  reference  to  the  subject  with  which  we  are  occupied. 
I  shall  say  no  more  of  it. in  this  place,  except  that  the  desire  of 
Herod  to  connect  Christ  with  John,  or  with  some  old  Prophet, 
indicates  the  restless  fear  which  characterized  all  his  family,  lest 
the  teacher  should  turn  out  to  be  a  king.  They  would  gladly 
indulge  the  people  in  any,  even  the  highest  fancy  respecting  a 
favorite  instructor,  to  escape  that  perilous  alternative. 

THE    SIGN    FROM    HEAVEN. 

"  The  Pharisees  also  with  the  Sadducees  came,  and  tempting 
desired  Him  that  He  would  show  them  a  sign  from  heaven. 
He  answered  and  said  unto  them,  When  it  is  evening,  ye  say,  It 
will  be  fair  weather  ;  for  the  sky  is  red.  And  in  the  morning. 
It  will  be  foul  weather  to-day  ;  for  the  sky  is  red  and  lowring. 
O  ye  hypocrites,  ye  can  discern  the  face  of  the  sky ;  but  can  ye 
not  discern  the  signs  of  the  times  ?  A  wicked  and  adulterous 
generation  seeketh  after  a  sign,  and  there  shall  no  sign  be  given 
unto  it  but  the  sign  of  the  prophet  Jonas.  And  he  left  them, 
and  departed."  In  the  eighth  chapter  of  St.  Mark,  at  the  nth 
verse,  we  have  this  account  of  the  same  transaction  :  "  And  the 
Pharisees  came  forth,  and  began  to  question  with  Him,  seeking 
of  Him  a  sign  from  heavep,  tempting  Him.  And  He  sighed 
deeply  in  His  spirit,  and  said.  Why  doth  this  generation  seek 
after  a  sign  ?  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  there  shall  no  sign  be  given 
unto  this  generation."  The  following  passage  in  the  eleventh 
chapter  of  St.  Luke,  at  the  29th  verse,  evidently  corresponds  to 
these  two :  "  And  when  the  people  were  gathered  thick  together, 
He  began  to  say.  This  is  an  evil  generation  ;  they  seek  a  sign, 
and  there  shall  no  sign  be  given  unto  it,  but  the  sign  of  Jonas 
the  prophet.  For  as  Jonas  was  a  sign  unto  the  Ninevites,  so 
shall  the  Son  of  Man  be   to  this  generation."     This  subject  of 


42  LECTURE    I. 

signs  occurs  so  often,  and  is  dwelt  upon  so  emphatically  by  the 
Evangelists,,  that  it  requires  a  serious  consideration.  The  Phari- 
sees evidently  thought  that  they  were  asking  for  some  proof 
altogether  different  from  any  our  Lord  had  furnished  them  with. 
To  heal  the  sick,  to  cast  out  devils,  was  not  in  their  minds  at  all  an 
adequate  attestation  of  His  power.  It  proved,  no  doubt,  that  he  had 
j"<9;;zd' power,  but  was  it  a  power  from  heaven'^  To  establish  that 
fact  there  must  be  some  visible  token  in  the /z^^z/^/^i"  showing  that 
He  had  come  from  thence,  and  derived  His  power  from  thence. 
Here  is  the  test,  the  experimentum  cruds  by  which  we  discover 
what  their  notion  of  heaven  was.  However  their  rabbis  might 
distinguish  between  the  first,  second,  and  third  heaven,  all  had 
really  the  same  sensuous  character.  However  they  might  de- 
nounce the  heathen  idolatry,  they  were  worshipping  a  cloud- 
compeller,  a  mere  God  of  nature,  as  much  as  any  Greek  was. 
It  was  a  visible  sign  in  a  visible  heaven  that  they  wanted.  Such, 
and  such  only,  was  recognized  by  them  as  a  sign  from  God. 
Must  not  He  who  came  preaching  the  Kingdom  of  heaven,  the 
Kingdom  of  His  Father,  have  sighed  deeply  when  the  people 
who  were  chosen  out  of  all  lands  to  witness  of  the  true  God, 
gave  this  proof  that  they  had  lost  the  power  of  acknowledging 
any  God  but  a  God  of  sense.  How  exactly  do  His  words  con- 
vey the  meaning  of  this  sigh,  "  A  wicked  and  adulterous  genera- 
tion seeketh  after  a  sign  ; "  a  generation  utterly  sensualized,  self- 
seeking,  without  the  power  of  looking  upon  heaven,  except  as  a 
shadow  cast  from  the  earth,  which  seemed  to  them  alone  real 
and  substantial  !  How  exactly,  too,  do  the  words,  "  No  sign 
shall  be  given  them  but  the  sign  of  Jonas  the  prophet,"  corres- 
pond to  all  that  we  have  found  in  the  preaching  of  the  Baptist, 
and  in  the  preaching  of  Jesus  himself.  Whatever  else  may  be  im- 
plied in  the  sign  of  Jonas,  the  first  and  simplest  idea  of  it  un- 
questionably is  that  which  is  conveyed  in  the  passages  I  have 
quoted,  that  which  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Luke  are  agreed  in  put- 
ting forward  most  jDrominently,  that  which  explains  the  "  no 
sign  "  of  St.  Mark ;  for  if  the  only  sign  given  was  that  of  Jonas, 
no  sisn  would  be  given   in  the   sense  in  which  the  Pharisees  de- 


THE    LEAVEN    OF    THE   SECTS.  43 

sired  one.  Jonas  came  preaching  repentance  to  the  Ninevites,  he 
called  to  them  to  turn  from  their  evil  ways,  else  the  city  which 
had  stood  for  generations  would  be  destroyed.  That  proved 
him  to  be  a  prophet  from  heaven.  The  people  owned  him  be- 
cause he  spoke  to  their  consciences,  because  he  discovered  to 
them  their  evil.  The  scribes  and  Pharisees  did  not  acknowledge 
this  sign  of  a  prophet.  The  other  would  assuredly  come  to  them 
in  due  time.  Signs  there  would  be  in  heaven  and  earth  that  the 
city  of  David  was  to  be  left  desolate,  and  an  astonishment  and  a 
hissing  to  all  people  of  the  earth.  So  important  is  this  discourse 
respecting  signs  in  illustrating  the  purpose  of  the  three  Evangel- 
ists, and  in  showing  how  far  they  were  the  vulgar  materialists 
which  the  wise  men  of  this  day  suppose  them  to  have  been. 


THE  LEAVEN  OF  THE  SECTS. 

"  Then  Jesus  said  unto  them.  Take  heed,  and  beware  of  the 
leaven  of  the  Pharisees  and  of  the  Sadducees."  St.  Mark  states 
the  injunction  somewhat  differently,  chap.  ix.  ver.  15,  "And  he 
charged  them,  saying,  Take  heed,  beware  of  the  leaven  of  the 
Pharisees  and  of  the  leaven  of  Herod."  St.  Luke,  chap.  xii. 
ver.  I,  limits  it  to  one  of  these  sects,  "He  began  to  say  unto 
His  disciples  first  of  all.  Beware  ye  of  the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees, 
which  is  hypocrisy."  In  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Mark  the  admo- 
nition is  connected  with  the  disciples  forgetting  to  take  bread. 
The  disciples  fancied  that  He  was  afraid  of  poison.  Iif  St.  Luke 
the  words  are  parts  of  a  general  discourse.  The  reason  which 
enforces  them  is,  "  for  there  is  nothing  covered  that  shall  not  be 
revealed,  neither  hid  that  shall  not  be  known." 

The  word  "  leaven  "  might  naturally  suggest  a  suspicion  to 
the  disciples  which  perhaps  was  not  wholly  unjustified  by  what 
they  knew  of  the  practices  of  these  sects,  and  of  their  special 
malice  against  Jesus.  Still  the  use  of  this  word  in  their  own 
Scriptures,  interpreted  by  the  Paschal  feast,  if  they  had  entered 
into  the  meaning  and  spirit  of  their  Master's  teaching,  would 
have  led  them  to  feel  that  this  was  not  the  s'Vnification  of  leaven 


44  LECTURE    I. 

which  He  was  most  likely  to  intend.  He  rebukes  them  directly 
for  not  trusting  Him  to  give  them  such  bread  as  was  needful  and 
healthful  for  them,  after  the  evidences  they  had  had  of  His 
power;  He  rebukes  them  implicitly  for  seeing  nothing  according 
to  its  inward  meaning,  every  thing  in  its  coarse  and  carnal  ap- 
plication. And  hereby  He  seems  also  to  explain  more  distinctly 
what  that  mixture  was  which  Pharisees,  Sadducees,  and  Hero- 
dians,  all  alike  introduced  into  their  doctrine,  though  they  dif- 
fered so  greatly  among  themselves,  though  technically  and  dog- 
matically they  were  opposed  to  each  other.  The  leaven  of  the 
Pharisees  was  especially,  as  St.  Luke  says,  hypocrisy.  As  the 
ordinary  bread  was  leavened,  and  yet  leaven  is  always  presumed 
to  make  it  less  pure, — to  be  that  which  gives  the  other  elements 
consistency,  but  in  some  sense  by  the  destruction  of  their  proper 
qualities, — so  the  Pharisee  mixed  that  which  is  earthly  with  that 
which  is  heavenly,  till  the  whole  substance  was  changed.  God's 
Law  and  Covenant  were  meant  to  separate  a  man  from  his  evil 
nature,  to  bring  him  under  a  new  power  and  principle.  The 
Pharisee  incorporated  the  Law  and  the  Covenant  with  the  evil 
nature  ;  the  motives,  influences,  tendencies  of  that  nature  were 
used  to  bind  together  the  maxims  of  the  Divine  Law,  to  make  it 
operative.  Thus  his  whole  life,  outwardly  consistent  and  co- 
herent, became  a  great  practical  contradiction.  He  was  an 
actor.  A  mask  made  in  imitation  of  the  real,  living,  divine 
Form,  supplied  its  place.  His  inward  being  perished  more  every 
day ;  for  that  which  should  have  kept  it  alive  was  itself  turned 
into  an  instrument  of  its  destruction.  To  the  Pharisee  the  words 
especially  applied,  "  That  wdiich  is  hidden  shall  be  known,  that 
which  is  covered  shall  be  revealed."  The  secret  ground  of  the 
heart,  the  inner  man,  which  was  becoming  more  and  more  un- 
known unto  itself,  which  was  buried  under  a  mass  of  outward 
practices  and  formalities,  which  was  concealed  by  the  darkness 
of  fleshly  desires  and  religious  self-deceits,  would  come  forth  into 
the  light  of  day.  The  man  would  stand  forth  discovered  to  him- 
self, discovered  also  by  his  open  evil  acts  to  the  world.  On  the 
other  hand,  there   would  be  a  clear,  broad  distinction  between 


PETERS    CONFESSION.  45 

the  Divine  bread  which  he  had  defiled,  and  the  leaven  which  he 
had  mixed  with  it.  All  this  applied  most  characteristically  to 
the  Pharisee.  He  was  emphatically  the  hypocrite.  Divine 
spiritual  principles  were  not  recognized,  and  were  therefore  not 
perverted  in  the  same  way,  or  to  the  same  degree,  by  any  other 
sect  as  they  were  by  him.  But  the  Sadducee  and  the  Herodian 
were  also,  each  in  his  own  manner,  leavening  the  divine  food 
which  had  been  given  them  for  the  nourishment  of  themselves 
and  of  the  whole  people  of  Israel.  The  one  by  the  maxims  of 
mere  earthly  and  prudential  morality,  the  other  by  the  rules  and 
maxims  of  state-expediency,  were  transforming  the  righteousness 
of  God  into  a  human  system,  utterly  ineffectual  for  the  guidance 
of  man,  ministering  to  his  pride,  favorable  to  dishonesty.  They 
also  were  hypocrites,  though  not  religious  hypocrites,  like  the 
Pharisee.  Each  had  to  keep  up  a  name  and  a  character  ;  the 
Sadducee  for  wisdom  and  superiority  to  vulgar  prejudices,  the 
Herodian  for  political  sagacity,  and  for  desire  to  preserve  Jewish 
customs  and  religion  along  with  subjection  to  the  Caesars.  P^ach 
was  trying  to  blend  contradictions,  to  bring  the  traditions  of 
their  forefathers  into  harmony  with  their  own  partial,  corrupt, 
grovelling  objects.  Of  this  leaven  then  the  disciples  had  to  be- 
ware. It  did  not  belong  exclusively  to  one  sect  or  form  of  opin- 
ion or  another.  It  was  sure  to  debase  all  persons  who  were  not 
taking  pains  to  exclude  it.  No  notions  or  practices  were  a  pro- 
tection against  it.  They  could  only  be  saved  from  it  by  remem- 
bering that  they  had  a  Lawgiver  and  King  always  with  them, 
who  was  seeking  to  separate  the  chaff  from  the  wheat,  that  in 
them  which  desired  right  and  truth  from  that  which  was  cleav- 
ing to  earth  and  nature,  the  divine  seed  from  the  evil  seed  which 
an  enemy  had  sown  in  their  hearts. 

Peter's  confession. 

"  When  Jesus  came  into  the  coasts  of  Caesarea  Philippi,  He 
asked  His  disciples,  saying,  whom  do  men  say  that  I  the  Son  of 
Man   am  ?     And   they  said,  Some    say  that  thou    art   John   the 


46  LECTURE    I. 

Baptist,  some  Elias,  and  others  Jeremias,  or  one  of  the  prophets. 
He  saith  unto  them,  But  whom,  say  ye  that  I  am  ?  And  Simon 
Peter  answered  and  said.  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the 
living  God."  Thus  far  the  accounts  of  all  the  three  Evangelists 
are  very  nearly  the  same.  The  answer  in  St.  Mark  ix.  29,  is 
simply,  "  Thou  art  the  Christ ;  "  in  Luke  ix.  20,  "  Thou  art  the 
Christ  of  God."  All  the  three  agree  in  saying,  "  Then  charged 
He  His  disciples  that  they  should  tell  no  man  that  He  was  Jesus 
the  Christ." 

There  can  be  no  question  in  any  one's  mind  as  to  the  import- 
ance which  each  of  the  Evangelists  attaches  to  this  narrative, 
nor,  I  think,  is  there  much  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  main 
object  and  interpretation  of  it.  St.  Peter,  so  all  the  Gospels  in- 
timate, St.  Matthew  only  with  more  clearness  than  the  rest,  had 
by  some  means  arrived  at  a  conviction  which  the  people  gener- 
ally, even  those  who  had  the  highest  notion  of  Jesus,  did  not 
entertain.  They  could  believe  that  He  was  a  prophet,  even  a 
miraculous  person,  the  apparition  of  one  who  had  been  long 
dead,  or  John  the  Baptist  returned  from  the  grave  with  new 
powers.'  But  there  was  something  which  the  did  not  admit.  The 
idea  of  a  Son  of  God,  of  the  Christ  of  God,  had  not  dawned  upon 
them.  They  could  not  say  He  is  this.  And  the  narrative  goes 
on  to  say,  they  were  not  to  be  told  that  He  was  this.  The  dis- 
covery was  one  which  the  Apostles  were  not  to  publish  ;  He 
straightly  charged  them  that  they  should  not :  Why  was  this  ? 
Was  it  not  the  very  purpose  of  John  the  Baptist's  coming  to  de- 
clare the  Christ  ?  Was  it  not  the  object  of  the  miracles,  the 
parables,  the  life  of  Jesus?  Assuredly;  to  declare  the  King 
who  was  ruling  invisibly  over  men's  hearts  and  spirits.  And 
therefore  while  He  was  visibly  among  them,  He  was  not  to  be 
prodaii7ied  as  the  Christ.  The  whole  power  and  mystery  of  the 
words  would  have  been  lost  in  such  an  announcement.  In  acts 
of  healing  love,  in  the  Gospel  to  the  poor,  in  his  most  trifling 
acts,  in  His  countenance,  the  truth  came  forth  as  truth.  It 
would  have  been  turned  outwards,  it  would  have  been  made  a 
falsehood  by  the   carnal   hearts  to  which  it  was  addresseG^,  if  it 


TAKING    UP    THE    CROSS.  47 

had  taken  the  form  of  a  proposition.  It  was  to  take  that  form 
hereafter  ;  a  time  would  come  when  this  would  be  the  main  topic 
of  the  preacher,  "  Jesus  is  the  Christ."  Now  he  was  to  say, 
"  Repent,  for  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at  hand  ;  now  he  was 
to  make  the  character  and  nature  of  this  kingdom  felt.  If  he 
did  more  it  would  be  the  kingdom  of  a  Herod  or  a  Caesar,  not 
of  a  Christ,  that  he  would  be  setting  up.  Every  one  will  per- 
ceive how  consistent  the  words  of  St.  Matthew,  "  Flesh  and 
blood  have  not  revealed  it  unto  thee,  but  my  Father  which  is  in 
Heaven,"  are  with  this  view  of  the  case  ;  how  equally  consist- 
ent the  reproof,  "  Get  thee  behind  me,  Satan  ;  for  thou  savorest 
not  the  things  that  be  of  God,  but  the  things  that  be  of  men," 
when  the  same  Peter  who  made  the  confession  showed  that  it 
was  still  impossible  for  him  to  reconcile  the  King  with  the  suf- 
ferer. I  shall  not,  of  course,  go  into  the  memorable  words  about 
the  rock,  because  they  constitute  one  of  the  peculiarities  of  St. 
Matthew.  I  shall  not  even  allude  any  further  to  the  censure  of 
the  Apostle  who  had  just  received  so  high  a  benediction,  be- 
cause St.  Luke  does  not  speak  of  it.  So  much  it  was  right  to 
say  on  the  subject,  because  the  very  next  passage  which  is  com- 
mon to  a41  the  Evangelists,  and  is  connected  by  them  all  with 
the  question  at  Caesarea  Philippi,  contains  the  essence  and  spirit 
of  the  rebuke.  I  hope  I  have  shown,  without  introducing  the 
least  novelty  into  the  explanation  of  the  passage,  that  it  proves 
the  first  three  Evangelists  to  have  been  possessed  by  the  feeling 
that  the  Kingdom  of  which  they  spoke  was,  in  the  highest  sense, 
a  spiritual  one  ;  that  they  never  thought  of  Jesus  as  other  than 
the  Son  of  God. 

TAKING   UP   THE   CROSS. 

''Then  said  Jesus  unto  His  disciples.  If  any  man  will  come 
after  Me,  let  him  deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross,  and  fol- 
low me.  For  whosoever  will  save  his  life  shall  lose  it,  and  who- 
soever will  lose  his  life  for  my  sake  shall  find  it.  For  what  is  a 
man  profited  if  he  shall  gain  the  whole  world,  and  lose  his  own 


48  LECTURE   I. 

soul  ?  or  what  shall  a  man-  give  in  exchange  for  his  soul  ?  For 
the  Son  of  Man  shall  come  in  the  glory  of  His  Father  with  his 
angels,  and  then  shall  He  reward  every  man  according  to  his 
works.  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  There  be  some  standing  here 
which  shall  not  taste  of  death,  till  they  see  the  Son  of  Man 
coming  in  His  Kingdom."  The  agreement  of  the  three  Evan- 
gelists is  clearer  in  this  passage  than  in  almost  any  other.  The 
only  important  differences  are,  that  in  Matthew  Jesus  speaks  to 
His  disciples,  that  in  St.  Mark  He  calls  the  people  unto  Him 
with  His  disciples  also,  and  that  in  St.  Luke  "  He  speaks  to 
them  all  ;"  the  antecedent  being  apparently  disciples;  and  that 
St.  Mark  and  St.  Luke  introduce  here  the  important  words, 
"  Whosoever  shall  be  ashamed  of  me  and  of  My  words,  of  him 
shall  the  Son  of  Man  be  ashamed ; "  expressions  which  had 
already  occurred  in  a  somewhat  varying  form  in  the  loth  Chap- 
ter of  St.  Matthew. 

Though  no  passage  is  more  frequently  quoted  than  this,  as  if 
it  were  a  solitary  maxim  or  proverb,  its  meaning  can  hardly  be 
ascertained,  I  think,  if  we  forget  the  position  which  it  occupies 
in  all  the  Evangelists  between  the  confession  of  Peter  and  the 
Transfiguration.  There  is  something  very  emphatic  i^  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  title.  Son  of  Man,  is  introduced  in  each  Gospel, 
when  it  is  viewed  in  connection  with  the  declaration,  "  Thou  art 
the  Son  of  God^  It  appears  to  exhibit,  more  clearly  than  any 
language  could,  the  very  nature  and  essence  of  our  Lord's  own 
self-denial,  and  therefore  to  point  out  that  which  He  is  demand- 
ing of  His  followers.  He  receives  His  Apostle's  confession, 
adopts  it  as  true,  rejoices  that  he  has  made  it  ;  but  He  takes  that 
very  moment  to  show  that  the  glory  of  the  Son  of  God  consists 
in  renunciation  of  all  self  subsisting  greatness,  in  choosing  to 
have  nothing  of  his  own,  in  sharing  the  sufferings  and  the  death 
of  man.  The  harmony  of  this  passage  with  the  history  of  the 
Temptation,  and  the  way  in  which  it  illustrates  its  relation  to 
the  Baptism,  will,  I  think,  commend  itself  to  the  conscience  of 
every  one.  But  the  point  to  which  I  would  chiefly  diaw  your 
attention  is,  the  difference  between  the   morality  of  the  passage 


TAKING    UP    THE    CROSS.  49 

when  it  is  thus  looked  at,  or  when  it  is  considered  as  an  inde- 
pendent maxim,  enjoining  Christ's  disciples  to  take  care  of  their 
souls,  and  not  to  consider  any  thing  so  precious  as  they  are.  That 
the  effect  of  obeying  our  Lord's  words  in  their  true  and  fullest 
sense  is,  that  the  soul  is  saved,  that  the  effect  of  forgetting  them 
is,  that  the  soul  is  lost,  no  one  who  reverences  Him  can  venture 
to  deny.  But  we  cannot  overlook  his  express  language  in  order 
to  bring  out  the  result  of  it  more  quickly  according  to  a  notion 
of  ours.  We  are  told  in  this  very  passage,  that  he  who  saveth 
his  soul  shall  lose  it.  I  do  not  say  in  what  way  we  are  to  con- 
strue il'uyji  ;  but  I  do  say  that  as  it  is  construed  in  one  part  of 
the  paragraph  so  it  must  be  in  another.  We  cannot  make  it  ani- 
mal life  where  our  Lord  speaks  of  losing  it,  and  something  wholly 
different  from  animal  life,  something  opposite  to  it,  where  He 
speaks  of  saving  it.  In  some  sense  or  other.  He  tells  us 
that  every  thing  which  belongs  to  us,  animal  life,  intellectual  life, 
spiritual  life,  our  own  very  selves,  are  to  be  given  up  and  lost,  if 
we  would  have  them  saved,  or  if  we  would  be  His  disciples.  To 
make  this  passage  the  ground  for  continual  exhortations  to  men, 
simply  and  nakedly  to  be  seeking  after  the  security  of  their  souls, 
must  involve  a  perilous  contradiction,  must  put  us  in  hazard  of 
setting  at  nought  the  letter  as  w^ell  as  the  spirit  of  the  Divine 
command.  Whereas,  if  the  whole  context  is  considered,  if 
Christ,  the  King  of  men  and  the  Son  of  God,  is  really  regarded 
as  the  great  self-denier,  not  because  these  glories  did  not  belong 
to  Him,  but  because  they  did,  and  because  He  could  only  assert 
them  and  set  them  forth  as  they  were  by  glorifying  His  Father 
and  giving  up  Himself,  the  self-denial  of  his  disciples  is  seen  to 
consist  likewise  in  the  giving  up  of  every  thing  which  is  individ- 
ually theirs,  the  acknowledgment  of  it  as  altogether  their  Lord's, 
as  realized,  possessed,  enjoyed  only  in  Him. 

4 


50  LECTURE    I. 


THE    TR,\XS FIGURATION. 


"  And  after  six  days  Jesus  taketh  Peter,  James,  and  John  his 
brother,  and  bringeth  them  up  into  an  high  mountain  apart,  and 
was  transfigured  before  them.  And  his  face  did  shine  as  the 
sun,  and  His  raiment  was  white  as  the  light.  And,  behold,  there 
appeared  unto  them  Moses  and  Elias  talking  with  Him.  Then 
answered  Peter,  and  said  unto  Jesus,  Lord,  it  is  good  for  us  to 
be  here  :  if  Thou  wilt,  let  us  make  here  three  tabernacles,  one 
for  Thee,  and  one  for  Moses,  and  one  for  Elias.  While  he  yet 
spake,  behold,  a  bright  cloud  overshadowed  them  ;  and,  behold, 
a  voice  out  of  the  cloud,  which  said.  This  is  My  beloved  Son,  in 
whom  I  am  well  pleased  ;  hear  ye  Him.  And  when  the  disciples 
heard  it,  they  fell  on  their  face,  and  were  sore  afraid.  And 
Jesus  came  and  touched  them,  and  said,  Arise,  and  be  not  afraid. 
And  when  they  had  lifted  up  their  eyes,  they  saw  no  man,  save 
Jesus  only."  However  commentators  may  have  striven  to  ar- 
range the  Gospels  according  to  some  theory  of  passovers,  and  of 
our  Lord's  journeyings  to  and  from  Galilee,  it  has  been  impos- 
sible for  them  not  to  perceive  that  the  event  recorded  in  these 
verses,  though  of  so  strictly  a  supernatural  kind,  is  one  of  the 
great  landmarks  in  the  writings  of  the  three  Evangelists,  one  of 
those  events  which  all  felt  themselves  bound  to  record  ;  and 
which  they  looked  upon,  not  as  standing  out  of  the  histor}-,  but 
as  explaining  what  goes  before  and  what  follows  it.  No  wonder 
the  Straussian  should  seize  such  an  event  as  this,  as  demon- 
strating the  mixture  of  mythical  with  ordinary  earthly  narrative. 
Upon  the  hypothesis  with  which  he  starts,  it  must  be  at  once 
thrown  aside  as  having  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  life  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  as  being  only  one  of  the  superb  inventions  in 
which  the  human  spirit  has  expressed  its  sense  of  its  own  dignity, 
has  glorified  and  deified  itself.  Only  this  question  will  occur  to 
any  one  who  has  followed  me  through  the  inquiry  on  which  I 
have  entered,  whether  ever}-  single  narrative  which  we  have  con- 
sidered hitherto  does   not  rest  upon  the  same  principle   as  this 


THE    TRANSFIGURATION.  5  I 

one,  and  must  not  stand  or  fall  with  it.  And  this  further  ques- 
tion will  occur  to  those  who  study  the  narrative  itself,  without 
any  prepossession  in  favor  of  the  Straussian  scheme  or  of  mine, 
whether  the  human  spirit  ever  found  out  so  strange  a  method  of 
expressing  its  veneration  either  for  itself,  or  for  a  favorite  hero, 
as  that  which  comes  forth  in  these  verses.  No  pomp  of  words 
in  one  Gospel  or  in  the  other,  no  attempt  to  excite  the  reader's 
astonishment  by  the  starts  of  the  writer ;  the  language  orderly, 
calm,  simple  to  nakedness,  yet  such  a  description  as  the  highest 
painters  have  felt  embodied  an  awe  and  reverence  which  they 
might  dare  with  a  trembling  pencil  to  express  through  their  art; 
a  vision  preceded  by  words  speaking  of  humiliation  and  nothing- 
ness, followed  by  words  and  acts  of  the  same  import — a  vision 
in  its  outward  form  transitory,  almost  momentary,  leaving  be- 
hind it  only  the  words  which  were  heard  at  the  Baptism,  "  This 
is  my  beloved  Son,"  with  those  others  which  betokened  that  His 
Word,  which  spake  to  the  inward  heart  and  spirit,  was  mightier, 
diviner  tlian  tha^  countenance  shining  as  the  sun,  than  the  gar- 
ments shining  as  the  light:  yes,  that  it  was  the  invisible,  inward 
glory  which  produced  that  transformation  of  the  bodily  form 
which  the  eye  could  scarcely  behold.  If  this  passage  were  one 
of  those  exaggerated  deviations  from  the  ordinary  story  which 
the  Straussian  supposes,  it  is  strange  by  what  art  the  vulgar  and 
blundering  Galilaeans,  the  earthly  sense-ridden  Hebrew,  con- 
trived to  preserve  so  entirely  the  style  of  his  common  discourse, 
to  abstain  from  all  inflation  and  exaggeration  ;  stranger  still 
that  he  seems  afraid  to  dwell  upon  this  transcendant  outward 
manifestation,  eager  to  prove  that  the  greatness  of  the  Son  of 
God  could  establish  itself  by  higher  proofs  than  these.  But  if 
we  admit  that  the  setting  forth  of  the  Son  of  God  is  the  purpose 
of  all  these  narratives,  that  He  is  declared  throughout  them  all 
as  possessing  a  power  which,  beginning  from  the  inmost  region, 
was  meant  to  penetrate  and  pervade  the  most  outward  and  sen- 
sible,— renewing  and  transforming  the  human  form,  and  ulti- 
mately the  whole  earth  with  the  heavenly  life  which  was  poured 
into  it. — then  the  omission  of  a  passage  like  this  would  be  a  sign 


52  LECTURE    I. 

of  weakness  and  incompleteness  ;  the  heart  would  ask  for  some- 
thing which  it  did  not  find,  the  Gospels  would  not  be  truly  and 
fully  Gospels  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

THE    EPILEPTIC    BOY. 

"  And  when  they  were  come  to  the  multitude,  there  came  to 
Him  a  certain  man,  kneeling  down  to  Him,  and  saying,  Lord, 
have  mercy  on  my  son  ;  for  he  is  lunatick,  and  sore  vexed  ;  for 
ofttimes  he  falleth  into  the  fire,  and  oft  into  the  water.  And  I 
brought  him  to  thy  disciples,  and  they  could  not  cure  him.  Then 
Jesus  answered  and  said,  Oh  !  faithless  and  perverse  generation, 
how  long  shall  I  be  with  you  ?  How  long  shall  I  suffer  you  ? 
Bring  him  hither  to  me.  And  Jesus  rebuked  the  devil,  and  he 
departed  out  of  him,  and  the  child  was  cured  from  that  very 
hour."  The  exquisite  instinct  of  Raphael  perceived  at  once  the 
necessity  of  combining  this  event  with  the  seemingly  incongruous 
one  of  which  we  have  just  spoken.  He  felt  that  the  unities  of 
space  and  time  were  both  to  be  sacrificed  for  the  sake  of  the 
deeper  and  more  mysterious  unity  which  all  the  three  Evangel- 
ists had  perceived,  and  which  had  compelled  them  to  exhibit  the 
earthly  crowd  and  faithless  disciples  at  the  bottom  of  the  mount, 
as  part  of  the  same  picture  with  the  still  and  awful  scene  upon 
its  summit.  The  painter,  if  he  transgressed  the  formal  rules  of 
his  art,  will  be  admitted,  I  should  conceive,  to  have  done  so  in 
submission  to  a  higher  principle  of  art ;  not  for  the  sake  of  a 
broad  and  glaring  contrast,  but  that  he  might  give  a  reality  to 
our  feeling  of  the  Transfiguration,  that  he  might  connect  it  with 
ourselves,  he  made  his  daring  experiment.  All  laws  of  art  rest, 
I  suppose,  on  some  ground  deeper  than  themselves,  which  they 
indicate,  but  cannot  touch.  Certainly  the  theological  truth  which 
this  meeting  of  contraries  embodies  is  one  which  belongs  to  the 
very  heart  of  Christianity,  one  which  words  cannot  express,  which 
is  never  seen  fully  but  in  the  life  of  Christ,  which  we  can  only 
apprehend,  even  in  the  faintest  degree,  when  we  acknowledge 
that  the  fellow-sufferer  with  man,  the  deliverer  of  man,  is  prima- 


THE    GREATEST    IN    THE    KINGDOM    OF    HEAVEN.  53 

rily  and  in  His  inmost  being  the  well-beloved  Son  of  God.  This 
illustration  of  the  principle  I  am  seeking  to  enforce  is  too  re- 
markable to  be  passed  over.  But  as  I  have  already  spoken  of 
our  Lord's  miracles  in  general,  I  have  no  excuse  for  dwelling  in 
detail  upon  this  one,  striking  and  memorable  as  the  circum- 
stances of  it  are. 

PROPHECY    OF    THE   PASSION. 

With  this  narrative  is  connected  another  of  our  Lord's  pro- 
phecies, of  His  death  and  resurrection,  which  is  preserved  by 
Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke,  and  apparently  referred  by  all  to  the 
same  time.  "  And  while  they  abode  in  Galilee,  Jesus  said  unto 
them,  The  Son  of  Man  shall  be  betrayed  into  the  hands  of  men, 
and  they  shall  kill  Him,  and  the  third  day  He  shall  rise  again. 
And  they  were  exceeding  sorry."  The  language  of  all  the  evan- 
gelists, St.  Mark  and  St.  Luke  even  more  than  of  St.  Matthew, 
leaves  us  no  room  for  doubt,  that  the  Transfiguration  seemed  to 
them  the  appointed  prelude,  not  to  a  single  discourse,  but  to  a 
series  of  discourses  on  this  topic ;  that  from  this  time  forth,  in 
fact,  it  became  the  leading  subject  of  our  Lord's  teaching  when 
He  was  among  His  own  disciples  ;  that  so  they  were  prepared 
for  His  final  entrance  into  Jerusalem.  Any  one  who  compares 
the  short  passages  which  refer  to  this  time  will  have  no  doubt,  I 
think,  that,  even  for  the  chronology  of  the  Gospels,  they  are  the 
most  important  which  we  can  find.  I  do  not  profess  to  throw 
any  light  upon  that  chronology,  but  I  am  persuaded  that  the  light 
must  come  where  commentators  have  looked  for  it  least,  from 
the  portions  of  the  narratives  which  have  the  most  evidently 
supernatural  and  celestial  character. 

THE    GREATEST    IN    THE    KINGDOM    OF    HEAVEN. 

"The  same  time  came  the  disciples  unto  Jesus,  saying.  Who 
is  the  greatest  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  ?  And  Jesus  called  a 
little  child  unto  Him,  and  set  him  in  the  midst  of  them,  and  said, 


54  LECTURE    I. 

Verily  I  say  unto  you,  Except  ye  be  converted  and  become  as 
little  children,  ye  shall  not  enter  into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 
Whosoever  therefore  shall  humble  himself  as  this  little  child,  the 
same  is  greatest  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  And  whoso  shall 
receive  one  such  little  child  in  my  name  receiveth  Me."  The 
parallel  passage  in  St.  Mark  is  at  the  33d  verse  of  the  ninth 
chapter.  There  the  occasion  of  the  discourse  is  stated  some- 
what differently.  "  Being  in  the  house  He  asked  them.  What 
was  it  that  you  disputed  among  yourselves  by  the  way?  And 
they  held  their  peace ;  for  by  the  way  they  had  disputed  among 
themselves  which  of  them  should  be  the  greatest."  St.  Luke, 
ch.  ix.  ver.  46,  follows  St.  Mark  with  a  slight  variation,  "Then 
there  arose  a  reasoning  among  them  which  of  them  should  be 
the  greatest  ;  and  Jesus  perceiving  the  thought  of  their  heart, 
took  a  child,"  etc.  The  discourse  in  St.  Matthew  beginning  from 
the  face  of  the  little  child,  flows  on  for  some  time  with  many 
windings  ;  it  is  terminated  speedily  in  St.  Mark  and  St.  Luke  by 
the  words  of  St.  John,  "  Master,  we  saw  one  casting  out  devils  in 
Thy  Name,  and  we  forbade  him,"  etc.  Allusions  both  to  the  dis- 
pute of  the  disciples  and  to  the  subject  itself,  occur,  I  need  not 
say,  often  in  the  Evangelists — a  very  memorable  one  in  St. 
Luke's  account  of  the  Paschal  Supper.  But  the  face  of  the  child 
proves  that  these  three  narratives  refer  to  the  same  conversation, 
even  if  all  circumstances  of  time  and  place  were  not  in  accord- 
ance. 

That  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  was  at  hand,  had  been  the  proc- 
lamation of  John,  of  our  Lord,  and  of  the  disciples  whom  he 
sent  forth.  Every  one  would  expect  such  an  announcement  to 
act  powerfully  upon  the  minds  of  those  who  had  heard  it,  still 
more  of  those  who  had  uttered  it.  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  has 
been  for  a  long  while  at  hand,  is  it  not  now  actually  coming  ? 
The  Transfiguration  preceded  by  the  words,  "  Verily  I  say  unto 
you,  there  are  some  standing  here  who  shall  not  taste  of  death 
till  they  see  the  Kingdom  of  God  coming  with  power,"  must 
have  mightily  increased  the  expectation  of  its  speedy  appearance, 
the  warnings  which  the  Apostles  found  it  so  impossible  to  under- 


THE    GREATEST    IN    THE    KINGDOM    OF    HEAVEN.  55 

Stand  respecting  the  rejection  and  death  of  their  Master,  would 
only  in  a  slight  degree  allay  it.  Hence  every  one  has  per- 
ceived in  the  evangelical  narratives  indications  of  a  growing  im- 
patience in  the  minds  of  the  disciples  to  knov/  when  the  promise 
should  be  fulfilled,  and  what  their  places,  when  the  new  reign 
commenced,  should  be.  Nearly  all,  I  say,  have  perceived  this, 
and  have  perceived  that  the  character  of  our  Lord's  discourses, 
especially  when  He  set  his  face  to  go  to  Jerusalem,  were  directed 
especially  to  this  feeling  in  the  hearts  of  His  followers.  But 
the  point  specially  deserving  of  notice  is,  that  He  never  for  a 
moment  changes  the  language  which  He  had  before  employed. 
He  never  intimates  that  it  is  not  a  Kingdom  in  the  strict  ordi- 
nary sense  of  the  word,  which  He  has  come  to  set  up.  He  only 
.disabuses  the  minds  of  His  Apostles  of  certain  vulgar  but  per- 
fectly natural  notions  respecting  a  kingdom,  which  they,  in  com- 
mon with  the  majority  of  their  countrymen,  of  Pharisees  as  much 
as  Publicans,  in  common  with  the  majority  of  men  in  every  age 
and  country,  were  cherishing.  With  the  idea  of  a  kingdom  they 
connected  the  triumph  of  the  few  over  the  many,  rivalship 
among  those  few^,  the  ascendancy  of  one.  All  these  have  been 
no  doubt  the  accidents  of  every  earthly  kingdom,  but  they  had 
been  the  destructive  accidents  of  it.  No  kingdom  subsisted  by 
the  ambition  of  the  few,  by  the  wealvness  of  the  many,  by  the 
rivalship  of  the  great  among  themselves,  by  the  ultimate  tyranny 
of  the  sagacious  or  fortunate  chieftain.  It  subsisted  by  the 
power  which  it  possessed  of  resisting  these  influences,  that  were 
always  working  to  overthrow  it,  by  the  higher  and  nobler  impulses 
and  objects  which  stirred  in  the  minds  of  even  its  selfish  citizens, 
and  led  them  to  seek  its  prosperity  even  at  the  sacrifice  of  their 
own.  If  the  rule  of  the  single  tyrant  was  felt  to  be  better  than 
the  anarchy  which  led  to  it,  the  reason  is  that  the  tyrant  was  less 
selfish  than  the  multitude,  that  he  did  more  work  for  the  whole, 
was  more  the  servant  of  the  whole.  The  law  then  that  the  great- 
est of  ail  is  the  servant  of  all,  had  been  really  the  law 
of  all  society,  had  been  implied  in  its  very  existence.  All 
confusion    and    wrong    had     come    from     the    transgression    of 


56  LECTURE    I. 

it.  The  fondness  for  that  transgression,  the  readiness  to  rec- 
ognize it  as  the  principle  of  human  life  and  fellowship,  was 
precisely  the  lie  of  the  evil  nature,  the  lie  of  the  evil  spirit,  that 
which  all  tyranny  and  falsehood  sustained  itself  upon,  that  which 
the  Son  of  God  must  come  to  cast  out.  When  then  he  took  a 
child  and  set  him  in  the  midst  of  his  disciples,  He  did  not  say 
that  He  was  going  to  found  a  kingdom,  which  should  be  called 
the  kingdom  of  Jesus,  or  the  Christian  kingdom,  and  which 
should  have  a  right  to  set  itself  up,  and  boast  itself  that  it  was 
different  from  all  kingdoms,  that  it  came  to  subvert  them  ;  but 
He  did  say,  in  consistency  with  all  that  he  had  said  hitherto,  that 
He  came  to  reveal  that  kingdom  which  lay  beneath  all  other 
kingdoms,  which  was  implied  in  the  existence  of  all,  that  the  true 
King,  who  was  the  true  servant  of  all,  had  appeared  to  show  what 
He  was,  what  the  meaning  and  nature  of  His  own  government 
had  been,  and  to  make  a  portion  of  those  who  ruled  under 
him  conscious  of  their  own  true  position,  conscious  that  true 
rule  implies  subjection,  conscious  that  all  seltish  rivalship  in.- 
volves  a  contradiction  ;  ready  therefore,  to  feel  with  Him,  that 
the  becoming  little  children,  the  abandonment  of  supremacy, 
the  acknowledgment  of  weakness,  is  the  one  method  of  making 
that  government  which  he  is  exercising  through  them,  feared, 
loved,  and  obeyed.  > 

DIVORCE. 

"  And  I  say  unto  you.  Whosoever  shall  put  away  his  wife,  ex- 
cept it  be  for  fornication,  and  shall  marry  another,  committeth 
adultery  ;  and  whoso  marrieth  her  which  is  put  away  doth  com- 
mit adultery."  This  sentence  is  connected  in  St.  Matthew  and 
St.  Mark  with  a  discourse  on  marriage  ;  in  St.  Luke  it  comes  in 
very  remarkably  between  the  parable  of  the  unrighteous  steward 
and  that  of  Dives  and  Lazarus.  I  may  examine  hereafter,  when 
I  speak  of  the  differences  between  the  Evangelists,  in  what  rela- 
tion it  stands  to  these  discourses.  I  will  only  remark  here,  that 
the  Pharisees,  in  St.  Luke,  as  well  as  in  St.  Matthew  and  St. 
Mark,  called  forth  the  observation,  and  that  in  all  three  it  bears 


DIVORCE.  57 

upon  the  nature  and  object  of  the  Law.  "  Moses  suffered  us  to 
give  her  a  writing  of  divorcement,  and  to  put  her  away,"  say 
the  Pharisees  in  two  of  the  Evangelists  ;  and  our  Lord  answers, 
"  For  the  hardness  of  your  hearts  he  gave  you  this  precept ;  but 
from  the  beginning  it  was  not  so."  St.  Luke  says,  "  The  Law 
and  the  Prophets  were  until  John  ;  since  that  time  the  kingdom 
of  God  is  preached,  and  every  man  presseth  into  it.  And  it  is 
easier  for  heaven  and  earth  to  pass  than  one  tittle  of  the  law  to 
fail.     Whosoever  putteth  away  his  wife,"  etc. 

This  then  is  evidently  set  forth  as  a  notable  case,  illustrating 
the  relation  between  the  Law  of  Moses  and  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven.  The  Pharisees,  who  often  accused  our  Lord  of  depart- 
ing from  the  strictness  of  the  Law,  suspected  that  in  one  in- 
stance He  exceeded  it  in  strictness.  He  does  not  deny  the 
charge.  He  denounces  the  use  of  a  privilege-which  they  had 
allowed  themselves,  and  which  Moses  had  permitted.  And  He 
does  this  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  principle  He  had  laid 
down  in  the  case  of  the  sabbath,  respecting  which  laxity  had 
been  imputed  to  Him  so  continually.  There  was  no  laxity  in 
one  instance  or  in  the  other.  He  asserted  the  principle  and 
idea  of  the  sabbath,  as  it  was  set  forth  in  the  commandment 
which  enforced  it.  He  insisted  upon  the  observation  of  that 
meaning  and  principle  as  essential  to  the  keeping  of  the  com- 
mandment. When  that  was  forgotten,  it  was  not  kept,  though 
no  single  ear  of  corn  was  plucked  upon  the  day.  In  like  man- 
ner, He  asserted  the  principle  and  meaning  of  marriage,  which 
was  implied  and  presupposed  in  the  very  law  that  sanctioned 
divorce.  The  permission  was  on  account  of  the  hardness  of 
their  hearts,  a  provision  for  an  evil  emergency  which  the  Phari- 
sees, mistaking  decrees  and  statutes  for  laws,  had  confounded 
with  one  of  the  primary  inviolable  institutes  of  society.  People 
were  pressing  into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  in  hopes  of  finding 
an  easier  yoke  than  that  which  the  letter-worshippers  had  im- 
posed upon  them.  They  would  find  it  easier,  because  it  was  that 
yoke  which  the  heart  and  spirit  of  man  were  created  to  wear,  a 
yoke  which  is  the  pledge  of  freedom  and  not  of  servitude.    They 


58  LECTURE    I. 

would  not  find  it  easier  if  they  were  seeking  for  mere  licenses 
and  exemptions.  It  would  not  cause  one  tittle  of  the  Law  to  fail. 
It  brought  to  light,  re-established,  placed  on  its  deepest  ground 
whatever  belonged  to  the  true  order  and  constitution  of  human- 
ity. The  right  acts  which  laws  through  their  infirmity  could  not 
compel,  would  come  forth  out  of  the  life  of  the  Lawgiver.  The 
irregularities  which  it  was  obliged  to  tolerate  he  would  under- 
mine. 

BLESSING    THE    LITTLE    CHILDREN. 

"  Then  were  there  brought  unto  Him  little  children,  that  He 
should  put  His  hands  on  them,  and  pray.  And  His  disciples 
rebuked  them.  But  Jesus  said,  Suffer  little  children,  and  forbid 
them  not,  to  come  unto  Me  ;  for  of  such  is  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven.  And  He  laid  His  hands  on  them,  and  departed 
thence."  There  is  a  kind  of  sentimental  interest  attached  to  this 
record  which  I  should  be  sorry  were  separated  from  it;  and 
which  I  could  wish  had  a  more  solid  foundation.  It  is  thought 
that  the  Evangelists,  one  and  all,  felt  themselves  constrained  to 
introduce  it  because  it  was  such  a  proof  of  the  human  sympathy 
and  tenderness  of  Jesus.  Such  assuredly  it  was.  And  the 
higher  our  idea  of  Him,  the  more  precious  all  such  tokens  of 
His  actual  humanity  become.  But  we  have  no  right  to  put  an- 
other construction  upon  the  object  of  these  writers,  than  their 
own  words  express.  They  tell  us  that  He  said,  "  Of  such  is  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven."  Because  he  said  so,  the  incident  de- 
serves to  be  recorded  in  a  record  of  the  life  of  the  Son  of  God 
upon  earth.  The  blessing  of  little  children  was  a  part  of  the 
revelation  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  Of  such  would  it  con- 
sist, that  is  to  say,  not  of  men  affecting  the  airs  of  little  children, 
pretending  to  become  children  by  giving  up  all  the  intellectual 
energies  of  men,  pretending  to  be  simple,  and  therefore  being  in 
the  most  inward  and  essential  sense  artificial  ;  without  any  of 
the  frankness,  openness,  trustfulness  of  children,  full  of  craft  and 
subtlety,  because  they  will  not,  and  dare  not,  be  manly.  Not 
such,  but  little  children  in  very  deed,  ready  to  receive,  and  open- 


THE    TEMPTATIONS    OF    THE    RICH    MAN.  59 

ing  every  pore  and  avenue  of  the  spirit  that  they  may  receive, 
full  of  wonder,  "full  of  the  sense  of  ignorance,  craving  for  knowl- 
edge and  light;  believing  that  all  treasures  are  intended  for 
them,  all  treasures  of  earth  and  heaven,  even  the  infinite  wisdom 
and  love  of  God  Himself.  As  has  bee  1  so  often  said,  the  man 
of  profoundest  science  is,  and  must  be,  a  little  child';  he  must  cease 
to  see  himself  reflected  in  the  things  about  him,  he  must  be  content 
to  see  every  thing  as  it  is  revealed  by  its  own  light,  not  as  it  is 
measured  and  colored  by  his  light.  Of  such  then  must  be  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  ;  only  those  who  can  take  every  thing  as  a 
gift,  who  think  of  the  object,  not  of  their  own  sight  or  faith,  of 
Him  who  works  in  them,  not  of  their  own  acts,  can  be  the  real 
brethren  and  fellow-citizens  of  Him  who  glorified  not  Himself, 
but  His  Father  who  sent  Him. 

THE    TEMPTATIONS    OF    THE    RICH    MAN. 

"  And,  behold,  one  came  and  said  unto  Him,  Good  Master, 
what  good  thing  shall  I  do  that  I  may  have  eternal  life  .?  And 
He  said  unto  him.  Why  callest  thou  me  good  ?  There  is  none 
good  but  One,  that  is,  God.  But  if  thou  wilt  enter  into  life,  keep 
the  commandments.  He  saith  unto  Him,  Which  ?  Jesus  said, 
Thou  shalt  do  no  murder,  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery, 
Thou  shalt  not  steal.  Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness.  Honor 
thy  father  and  thy  mother,  and.  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself.  The  young  man  saith  unto  Him,  All  these  have  I  kept 
from  my  youth  up  :  what  lack  I  yet  ?  Jesus  said  unto  him.  If 
thou  wilt  be  perfect,  go  and  sell  that  thou  hast,  and  give  unto 
the  poor,  and  thou  shalt  have  treasure  in  heaven  ;  and  come, 
follow  me.  But  when  the  young  man  heard  that  saying,  he  went 
away  sorrowful :  for  he  had  great  possessions.  Then  said  Jesus 
unto  His  disciples,  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  That  a  rich  man  shall 
hardly  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  And  again  I  say  unto 
you,  It  is  easier  for  a  camel  to  go  through  the  eye  of  a  needle,  ^ 
than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God  When  the 
disciples   heard  it,  they  were   exceedingly  amazed,    saying,  Who 


60  LECTURE    I. 

then  can  be  saved  ?  And  Jesus  beheld  them,  and  said  unto  them, 
With  man  this  is  impossible,  but  with  God  all  things  are  pos- 
sible." There  are  very  few  important  variations  in  the  accounts 
which  the  three  Evangelists  give  of  this  interview,  and  of  the  re- 
marks which  followed  it.  All  readers  have  felt  that  the  narrative 
occupies  a  most  important  place  in  the  evangelical  history. 
Much  has  been  said  about  it ;  but  its  meaning  has  surely  not 
been  exhausted  ;  it  will  still  bear  to  be  examined  in  its  connec- 
tion, and  in  its  details. 

Most  persons,  I  think,  must  have  been  struck  with  the  con- 
nection between  the  form  of  the  young  man's  question,  and  the 
weakness  which  our  Lord  brought  to  light  in  him.  "  What  good 
thing  shall  I  do,  that  I  may  inherit  eternal  life  ?  "  This  was  pre- 
cisely the  thought  of  one  who  had  been  wont  to  try  every  thing 
by  the  standards  of  the  market,  and  who  naturally,  inevitably 
adopted  its  language  when  he  spoke  of  life,  or  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.  Our  Lord's  answer,  "  Why  callest  thou  me  good  ? 
There  is  none  good  but  One,"  was  surely  addressed  to  this  state 
of  mind.  He  takes  advantage  of  a  phrase  which  the  )oung  man 
used  in  a  mere  conventional  way,  to  set  before  him  that  which 
he  really  wanted,  that  which  could  not  be  measured  by  any  of 
his  standards,  "  There  is  none  good  but  God,"  He  is  the  good. 
To  know  Him  is  the  life  thou  seekest.  But  how  was  that  good, 
that  life  to  be  obtained  ?  Here  came  in  another  humbling  les- 
son, "You  have  got  the  commandments.  These  are  given  you 
for  that  end.  They  tell  you  of  the  things  which  keep  you  from 
the  knowledge  of  God,  of  the  acts  and  tendencies  which  put  you 
at  a  distance  from  Him.  Keep  these,  remember  these,  hold 
them  fast  in  your  mind,  mould  yourself  according  to  them,  and 
you  will  be  in  the  way  to  the  knowledge  of  Him  who  gave  them, 
to  the  perfect  Good,  to  the  true  Life."  But  all  these  the  young 
man  had  kept  from  his  youth  up.  Was  he  wrong  in  this  asser- 
tion ?  Was  it  a  lying  boast?  We  are  not  told  so.  Every  thing 
would  lead  us  to  the  opposite  conclusion.  He  had  kept  them, 
but  not  with  a  view  to  that  end  which  our  Lord  set  before  him. 
He  had  kept  them   from  his   youth   up   habitually,  instinctively ; 


THE    TEMPTATIONS    OF    THE    RICH    MAN.  6 1 

and  as  he  became  more  conscious  of  a  purpose,  as  he  began 
more  deliberately  to  seek  one,  he  kept  them  with  a  view  to  that 
result  which  he  hoped  our  Lord  might  assist  him  in  procuring. 
He  thought  obedience  to  them  would  buy  him  so  many  blessings 
in  a  future  life,  or  would  rescue  him  from  so  many  punishments 
in  it.  Still  he  felt  that  more  was  wanted  to  give  him  the  re- 
quisite security.  Unquestionably  he  never  put  the  thought  dis- 
tinctly before  himself,  that  he  was  bargaining  with  the  Almighty. 
His  gentle  and  graceful,  even  gracious,  mind  would  have  revolted 
at  such  language.  But  this  was  his  misfortune.  He  did  not  set 
the  case  clearly  before  himself;  he  was  living  in  a' dim  twilight, 
not  distinctly  aware  of  his  own  feelings  or  objects,  ignorant  how 
entirely  his  thoughts  of  heaven  were  shaped  and  colored  by  his 
earthly  circumstances.  He  was  therefore  willing  to  give  so 
much  over  and  above  his  observation  of  the  commandments 
for  the  sake  of  making  his  title  to  the  felicity  of  which  he 
dreamed,  and  to  a  deliverance  from  the  terrors  of  which  his 
conscience  spoke,  absolutely  clear  and  undoubted.  Our 
Lord  takes  him  at  his  word.  "  Thou  wilt  give  up  much  to  ob- 
tain heaven.  Go,  sell  all  that  thou  hast,  and  give  to  the  poor, 
and  come,  follow  me.  You  feel  there  is  some  hinderance  to 
being  all  that  you  ought  to  be,  all  that  you  wish  to  be.  You  are 
right ;  there  is  such  a  hinderance.  There  is  something  which 
turns  all  your  thoughts  about  right  and  good  awry,  which  gives 
them  a  false  direction  and  a  false  object.  Give  up  the  thing 
which  thou  lovest  better  than  God,  and  thou  wilt  know  what  He 
is  ;  thou  wilt  have  treasure  in  heaven."  Here  was  the  test.  He 
had  never  known  before  what  his  heaven  was  ;  now  he  found  it  out. 
The  life  he  was  seeking  was  the  earthly  life,  though  he  called 
it  eternal  life.  By  eternal,  he  meant  the  indefinite  prolongation 
of  that  kind  of  good  which  he  had  been  here  dwelling  in.  It  is 
not  the  Evangelist's  business  to  give  us  the  issue  of  the  story. 
One  cheering  hint  they  do  give  us,  upon  which  we  may  build 
plausible  conclusions  respecting  the  history  of  the  young  man. 
He  went  away  sad.  He  had  learnt  to  know  himself  as  he  had 
never  known  himself  before,  to  have   a   discontent  with  himself 


62  LECTURE    I. 

which  he  had  till  then  never  experienced.  All  good  may  have 
come  out  of  that  sadness.  His  past  keeping  of  the  command- 
ments, the  gracious  dispositions  which  St.  Mark  says,  "our 
Lord  beheld  and  loved,"  may  not  in  any  sense  have  been 
wasted.  If  he  could  not  break  his  own  idol  to  pieces,  God  may 
have  broken  it  for  him  ;  or  he  may  have  been  afterwards  one  of 
those  who  learnt  to  call  nothing  their  own,  to  bring  all  their 
goods  and  lay  them  at  the  Apostles'  feet.  Of  him  we  know 
nothing.  This  fragment  of  his  history  is  recorded,  because  upon 
it  our  Lord  grounded  the  remark,  "  How^  hardly  shall  a  rich  man 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God."  Why  was  this  so  hard?  The 
Apostles  were  astonished  beyond  measure,  for  who  then  could 
be  saved  ?  1  he  rich  man  had  time  to  devote  to  the  service  of 
God.  He  had  money  to  give  for  the  help  of  the  poor.  If  he 
could  not  fulfil  the  duties,  practice  the  virtues,  earn  the  prizes 
of  the  Divine  Kingdom,  who  could  ?  If  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
were  not  altogether  something  different  from  that  which  the 
young  ruler,  or  the  Apostles  themselves  at  that  time,  were  ac- 
knowledging, how  perfectly  natural  and  reasonable  were  his 
thoughts  and  theirs !  If  it  was  a  kingdom  such  as  John  had 
spoken  of,  such  as  our  Lord  in  all  His  parables  and  miracles 
had  set  forth,  a  kingdom  nigh  at  hand,  having  its  throne  in  the 
heart  and  spirit  of  every  human  being,  the  kingdom  of  the  Son 
of  God  over  the  creatures  who  were  made  in  his  image,  how  cer- 
tain it  was  that  every  thing  which  led  them  to  seek  in  the  world 
without  for  the  treasures  which  were  stored  in  Himself,  were 
hinderances  to  the  confession  of  His  dominion,  hinderances 
which  it  was  impossible  for  man,  though  it  was  possible  for  God, 
to  overcome.  If  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  were  a  universal  king- 
dom, into  which  all  of  every  degree  were  to  be  admitted,  how 
obvious  it  was  that  the  external  possessions  which  made  one  man 
think  himself  above  another,  and  unwilling  to  take  up  his  posi- 
tion among  his  brethren,  were  also  all  but  insurmountable  bar- 
riers. Unless  the  rich  man  could  become  in  the  most  inward 
and  essential  sense  poor,  he  could  no  more  shrink  into  the 
dimensions  which  would  fit  him  to  enter  the  strait  gate,  than  a 
camel  could  go  through  the  eye  of  a  needle. 


THE    TEMPTATION    OF    THE    POOR    MAN.  63 


THE    TEMPTATION    OF    THE    POOR    MAN. 

"  Then  answered  Peter  and  said  unto  Him,  Beliold,  we  have 
forsaken  all,  and  followed  Thee  ;  what  shall  we  have  therefor? 
And  Jesus  said  unto  them,  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  that  ye  which 
have  followed  me,  in  the  regeneration, when  the  Son  of  Man  shall 
sit  in  the  throne  of  His  glory,  ye  also  shall  sit  upon  twelve 
thrones,  judging  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel.-  And  every  one  that 
hath  forsaken  houses,  or  brethren,  or  sisters,  or  father,  or  mother, 
or  wife,  or  children,  or  lands,  for  my  Name's  sake,  shall  receive 
an  hundred-fold,  and  shall  inherit  everlasting  life.  But  many 
that  are  first  shall  be  last,  and  the  last  shall  be  first." 

The  words  respecting  the  regeneration  and  the  Son  of  Man 
sitting  on  the  throne  of  His  glory,  are  peculiar  to  St.  Matthew, 
and  as  such  will  demand  our  consideration  hereafter. 

The  particular  form  of  St.  Peter's  phrase,  "  What  shall  we 
have  therefor  .''"'  also  belongs  to  him.  Hence,  I  apprehend,  arises 
the  difference  in  the  rest  of  the  passage.  A  great  part  of  the 
emphasis  of  the  whole  story  in  St.  Matthew  evidently  rests  on 
the  last  verse,  which  is  the  text  of  the  parable  of  "the  Husband- 
men and  Laborers  in  the  Vineyard."  St.  Mark  does  not  give  the 
same  selfish  form  to  St.  Peter's  demand  ;  he  merely  says,  "  Then 
Peter  began  to  say,  Lo,  we  have  left  all,  and  followed  Thee." 
But  as  he  had  used  the  same  phrase  in  the  8th  Chapter,  when 
Peter  called  our  Lord  to  account  for  the  prophecy  of  His  humil- 
iation, and  when  he  received  his  great  rebuke,  I  conceive  he  did 
mean  to  imply  nearly  what  is  intimated  in  the  other  Evangelists. 
Although  therefore  he  omits  the  parable,  he  introduces  the 
w'ords,  "  Many  that  are  last  shall  be  first,  and  the  first  last,"  in 
the  same  significant  way.  In  St.  Luke  we  read  merely,  "Lo, 
we  have  left  all,  and  followed  Thee."  By  him.  the  words,  "  Many 
that  are  first  shall  be  last,"  are  omitted.  They  occur  in  the  13th 
Chapter  of  St.  Luke,  in  connection  with  the  great  answer  to  the 
question,  "  Are  there  few  that  shall  be  saved  ?  " 

These  remarks  could  not  so  well  be  introduced  in  speaking  of 


64  LECTURE    T. 

the  direct   differences  of  the   Evangelists.     They  may  serve  to  "^ 
explain  how    apparently   accidental   omissions   or  additions    in 
narratives  that  are  substantially  the  same,  bring  out  the  meaning 
which  is  common  to  them.     There  can  be  no   doubt,  I  imagine, 
from  the  language  of  all  the  Evangelists,  that  our  Lord   meant 
to  tell  Peter  that  the  blessing  of  those  who  really  left  all  for  the 
Gospel  could  not  be  exaggerated.     If  they  had  left  all  and  fol- 
lowed  Christ,  there    were   houses,    lands,  persecutions,  friends, 
mothers,  brothers,  sisters,  everlasting  life^  in  store  for  them.     It 
is  intimated  as  clearly,  that  while  he  was  still  asking  "  what  shall 
we  have  therefor  t  "  he  had  not  left  all.      He  was  bargaining  for 
wages,  wishing  to  get  more  than  others  by  his  sacrifices.     At  the 
end  of  the  day,  if  such  a  habit  of  mind  continued,  he  would  be 
angry   when    the    great    Householder    admitted    those    who    he 
thought  had  toiled  less,  to  the  same   blessing  as  himself.     The 
instruction  therefore  to  the  poor  fishermen  is  essentially  the  same 
as  that  to  the  rich  ruler.     The  discourses  cannot  be  separated. 
They  were  still  in  a  measure  self-seekers  as  he  was  ;  in  a  measure, 
I  say,  for  no   one  can   suppose   that   they  had    really  followed 
Christ  upon   a  calculation.     They  were  drawn   after  Him  by  a 
power,  a  love,  which  they  could  not  resist.     They  clung  to  Him, 
and  lost  themselves  in    Him  :  so   far  they  were  already  in   seed 
and  germ  what  they  afterwards  became.     But  the  habit  of  mind 
which  belonged  to  their  country,  which  belongs  to  the  evil  nature 
of  every  man,  which   was  encouraged  by  the  pharisaic  religion, 
and  almost  constituted   it,  still  hung  about  them.      They  were 
still  fancying  as  the  ruler  did,  that  certain  measurable  sacrifices 
would  secure  a  certain  measurable  felicity.     The  associations  of 
the  market  were  not  banished  from  their  contemplation  of  eter- 
nal life.     One  great  lesson  comes  out  of  the   answers  to  them, 
that  the  mistakes  of  men  are   not  treated  by  the  Divine  teacher 
according    to    the    rule    of    the    great   human    teacher,    that   a 
stick  which  has  an  inclination  to  bend  one  way,  must  be  turned 
the  other.     On  the  contrary,  He,  both   in  dealing  with  the  ruler 
and  with   His  own   disciples,  goes   all  lengths   with   them  ;  He 
admits  that  eternal  life  is  to  be   obtained  by  sacrifice,  and   only 


THE    GOING    UP    TO   JERUSALEM.  65 

shows  them  how  the  selfishness  of  their  minds  is  really  making 
sacrifice,  in  any  true  sense  of  the  word,  impossible. 

THE    GOING    UP    TO    JERUSALEM. 

I  have  spoken  already  of  two  announcements  of  the  Passion, 
especially  of  that  which  followed  the  Transfiguration.  But  the 
passage  which  follows  immediately  after  the  discourse  with  the 
ruler  and  with  Peter,  in  all  the  three  Evangelists,  is  introduced 
so  significantly — little  phrases  in  each  indicate  that  it  left  so 
deep  an  impression  upon  the  disciples — as  to  forbid  that  we 
should  pass  it  over,  under  pretence  of  its  being  a  mere  repetition 
of  what  has  gone  before.  "  And  Jesus  going  up  to  Jerusalem, 
took  the  twelve  disciples  apart  in  the  way,  and  said  unto  them, 
Behold,  we  go  up  to  Jerusalem  ;  and  the  Son  of  Man  shall  be 
betrayed  unto  the  chief  priests,  and  unto  the  scribes,  and  they 
shall  condemn  Him  to  death,  and  shall  deliver  Him  to  the  Gen- 
tiles, to  mock,  and  to  scourge,  and  to  crucify  Him  ;  and  the  third 
day  He  shall  rise  again." 

What  I  wish  to  fix  your  attention  upon  is,  that  the  emphasis 
in  this  passage  is  made,  by  each  Evangelist,  to  rest  on  the  words, 
'"  Behold,  we  go  up  to  Jerusalem." 

Our  Lord  had  already  spoken  of  His  passion  and  resurrection 
in  connection  with  His  own  character  as  the  Son  of  God.  There 
was  another  aspect  in  which  they  must  be  viewed,  in  connection 
with  the  holy  city,  with  the  people  who  would  reject  Him.  St. 
Luke,  perhaps,  makes  us  feel  with  more  clearness  than  the  other 
Evangelists  how  continually  this  thought  was  present  to  the  mind 
of  our  Lord  Himself.  But  the  more  diligently  we  study  both  the 
others,  the  more  we  shall  find  how  much  the  entry  into  Jerusalem 
is  by  them  also  regarded  as  the  crisis  in  the  liistory  of  their 
nation,  and  therefore  in  the  history  of  all  nations.  Never  for  a 
moment  have  they  lost  sight  of  an  approaching  judgment  in  their 
view  of  the  great  Deliverer,  never  have  they  forgotten  that  a 
baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  also  to  be  a  baptism  of  fire.  We 
shall  feel  how  needful  this  consideration  is  when  we  come  to  the 
next  step  in  the  narrative. 

5 


66  LECTURE    1. 


THE    DESCENT    FROM    THE   MOUNT    OF    OLIVES. 

"  And  when  they  drew  nigh  unto  Jerusalem,  and  were  come 
to  Bethphage,  unto  the  mount  of  Olives,  then  sent  Jesus  two  dis- 
ciples, saying  unto  them,  Go  into  the  village  over  against  you, 
and  straightway  ye  shall  find  an  ass  tied,  and  a  colt  with  her : 
loose  them,  and  bring  them  unto  me.  And  if  any  man  say  ought 
unto  you,  ye  shall  say,  the  Lord  hath  need  of  them  ;  and  straight- 
way he  will  send  them.  All  this  was  done,  that  it  might  be  ful- 
filled which  was  spoken  by  the  prophet,  saying,  Tell  ye  the 
daughter  of  Sion,  Behold,  thy  King  cometh  unto  thee,  meek,  and 
sitting  upon  an  ass,  and  a  colt  the  foal  of  an  ass.  And  the  dis- 
ciples went,  and  did  as  Jesus  commanded  them,  and  brought  the 
ass,  and  the  colt,  and  put  on  them  their  clothes,  and  they  set  him 
thereon.  And  a  very  great  multitude  spread  their  garments  in 
the  way  ;  others  cut  down  branches  from  the  trees,  and  strewed 
them  in  the  way.  And  the  multitudes  that  went  before,  and 
that  followed,  cried,  saying,  Hosanna  to  the  Son  of  David  ; 
Blessed  is  he  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  ;  Hosanna  in 
the  highest.  And  when  he  was  come  into  Jerusalem,  all  the  city 
was  moved,  saying.  Who  is  this  ?  And  the  multitude  said,  This 
is  Jesus  the  prophet  of  Nazareth  of  Galilee." 

This  is  one  of  the  narratives  which  belongs  to  the  fourth 
Gospel  as  well  as  to  the  first  three.  I  am  not  now  to  consider 
St.  John's  reasons  for  introducing  it.  Every  one  has  felt  how 
important  a  place  it  occupies  in  those  which  are  called  the  syn- 
optical Gospels.  Every  one  also,  I  suppose,  has  perceived  that 
the  passage  is  meant  to  describe  a  royal  entrance  into  the  city  of 
David,  an  entrance  for  which  there  had  been  a  long  previous 
preparation,  which  even  at  the  time  the  immediate  disciples  ot 
our  Lord,  deriving  their  impression  from  Himself,  regarded  as 
the  beginning  of  a  series  of  great  and  solemn  events.  What 
would  come  of  this  to  Him  quite  unusual  method  of  announcmg 
His  dignity,  why  He  who  had  been  merely  the  prophet  among 
fishermen    in    Galilee,   should    court    the   vengeance    which    he 


THE    DESCENT    FROM    THE    MOUNT    OF    OLIVES.  6/ 

seemed  to  expect  in  the  capital  of  his  enemies,  why,  if  He  must 
enter  the  city  towards  which  he  had  so  long  set  his  face,  he  did 
not  more  carefully  than  ever  before  eschew  any  conduct  which 
might  excite  the  suspicion  of  the  Roman  Governor,  or  furnish 
the  Pharisees  with  a  new  and  valid  pretext  against  Him  ;  this 
the  disciples  might  in  vain  try  to  guess.  But  that  this  entry  did 
stand  in  some  very  close  relation  to  that  Kingdom  of  which  He 
had  been  speaking  in  all  His  parables,  which  He  had  been 
illustrating  by  all  His  miracles,  they  could  not  doubt.  If  He 
wished  them  to  think  that  He  was  not  a  king,  or  one  only  in 
some  imaginary,  metaphorical  sense,  why  seize  just  this  moment 
and  just  this  manner  of  conveying  an  impression  to  their  minds, 
which  all  after  events  could  not  efface,  but  must  deepen  ? 

This  is  the  kind  of  question  which  we  should  naturally  urge 
upon  those  w^ho  are  wont  to  read  the  Gospels  with  perfect  faith 
in  their  genuineness  and  their  inspiration,  but  only  as  the  his- 
tory of  a  Divine  Teacher,  not  chiefly  or  primarily  as  the  history 
of  a  Divine  King.  Those  who  look  upon  the  Evangelists  as 
vulgar  men  united  by  the  superstition  of  their  country  in  the 
common  belief  that  Jesus  was  coming  to  depose  the  Caesars,  and 
restore  the  dynasty  of  David  in  Judsea,  will  of  course  eagerly 
grasp  at  this  evidence  in  favor  of  their  conclusion.  And  surely 
they  are  entitled  to  any  benefit  which  they  can  derive  from  the 
most  exact  meaning  which  can  be  attached  to  the  words  of  the 
Evangelists  ;  they  have  a  right  to  demand  that  no  vague  uncriti- 
cal signification  shall  be  attached  to  the  description  of  an  event 
evidently  so  important  in  the  eyes  of  the  writers,  the  one  from 
which  they  date  the  last  and  greatest  period  of  their  history.  If 
upon  an  attentive  consideration  of  the  words  which  I  have  quot- 
ed from  St.  Matthew,  the  Ebionite  Evangelist,  as  w^e  are  told  he 
is,  the  one  in  whom,  after  all  later  excisions  and  spiritualizations, 
there  is  said  to  remain  the  most  marked  traces  of  old  judaical 
materialism,  it  shall  be  found  that  there  is  any  thing  whatsoever 
which  is  inconsistent  with  that  idea  of  a  kingdom,  of  a  real,  ac- 
tual, present  kingdom,  a  kingdom  which  was  the  real  fulfilment 
of  the  one  David   established,  but  because  real,  present,  imme- 


68  LECTURE    I. 

diate,  Davidian,  Jewish,  therefore  in  the  deepest  sense  spiritual, 
lying  at  the  root  of  things,  existing  in  the  person  of  One  who 
had  from  the  first  upheld  all  things  by  the  word  of  His  power  ; 
if  there  is  one  phrase  in  St.  Matthew's  narrative  which  after  the 
severest  examination  is  found  to  interfere  with  the  impression 
which  all  his  previous  history  has  left  upon  us,  then  I  admit,  not 
merely  that  the  story  of  the  descent  from  the  Mount  of  Olives  is 
a  perplexing  passage  in  itself,  but  that  it  perplexes  all  which  pre- 
cedes and  follows  it. 

But  there  is  no  such  word.  Every  thing  here  is  royal,  but 
there  are  none  of  the  trappings  of  royalty.  He  calls  for  the  ass, 
and  the  owner  feels  that  it  must  be  yielded  up,  because  the  Lord 
has  need  of  it.  The  ass  is  the  ordinary  Beast  upon  which  the 
judge  of  old  rode,  yet  it  is  the  symbol  of  lowliness.  He  is  wel- 
comed with  branches  of  palm-trees,  and  with  hosannas  ;  but  the 
honors  are  paid  Him  by  a  band  of  insignificant  followers.  Turn 
the  narrative  which  way  soever  you  will,  consider  the  general  im- 
pression which  it  produces,  or  look  into  its  minutest  details,  and 
there  is  every  thing  to  bear  out  the  impression  of  quiet  invisible 
power  which  will  make  itself  to  be  felt,  but  which  will  not  come 
with  observation,  which  claims  the  homage  of  human  hearts  as 
the  highest  it  can  receive,  before  it  shows  to  what  master  those 
hearts  which  refuse  the  homage  are  surrendering  themselves. 
This  is  precisely  the  teaching  which  we  have  received  from  every 
passage  we  have  studied  hitherto  in  these  Gospels.  If  there 
were  a  history  composed  of  such  passages,  if  the  scene  of  it  was 
laid  in  the  land  of  Judaea,  if  every  step  of  it  was  connected  with 
an  approaching  crisis  in  the  history  of  the  land,  and  of  its  chief 
city,  should  not  we  look  for  this  consummation,  should  we  not 
feel  that  there  was  a  blank  in  the  story  if  it  was  wanting  ?  All 
Christendom  has  felt,  the  conviction  has  been  expressed  in  the 
language  of  art  and  in  the  language  of  books  of  devotion,  by 
those  who  were  meditating  the  Scriptures  for  their  own  spiritual 
profit,  by  those  who  were  looking  upon  them  as  documents  for 
the  history  of  the  world,  that  the  meekest  and  lowliest  of  men 
did  enter  Jerusalem  to  say,  "  I  am   your  Ruler  and  Lord.     Will 


JESUS    GOING    INTO    THE    TEMPLE.  69 

you  own  me  in  that  character  ?  If  3^ou  do  not,  the  stones  of 
your  city  will  cry  out.  The  real  invisible  bond  which  keeps 
them  together  will  be  destroyed ;  in  a  little  time  not  one  will  be 
left  upon  another."  I  appeal  to  the  existence  of  this  conviction 
which  has  struck  such  deep  roots,  and  has  found  for  itself  such 
manifold  expressions,  in  proof  of  my  original  assertion,  that  I 
am  not  maintaining  any  novel  hypothesis  respecting  these  Gos- 
pels, but  am  merely  bringing  out  the  truth  which  the  conscience 
of  modern  Europe  has  implicitly  recognized,  and  showing  that 
instead  of  its  being  grounded  on  some  symbolical  or  mystical 
interpretation,  it  is  the  only  one  which  is  compatible  with  the 
literal  understanding  of  these  books,  the  only  one  which  explains 
the  connection  of  their  different  parts.  What  has  been  wanting, 
I  conceive,  to  give  this  belief  its  full  power  and  consistency,  has 
been  a  more  full  and  frank  acknowledgment  that  Christ  is  the 
King  of  Men,  and  not  merely  the  King  of  that  particular  portion 
of  men  who  were  permitted  to  call  themselves  by  His  Name. 
Our  selfishness  has  robbed  Him  of  more  than  half  Plis  glory, 
and  threatens  at  last  to  deprive  us  of  the  blessing  which  we 
have  refused  to  share.  But  I  am  anticipating  future  observa- 
tions. 

JESUS    GOING    INTO    THE   TEMPLE. 

If  the  last  passage  contains  one  of  the  few  coincidences  be- 
tween that  part  of  St.  John's  Gospel  which  precedes  the  history 
of  the  passion  and  the  narratives  of  the  other  three  Evangelists, 
the  passage  which  follows  contains  almost  the  only  memorable 
instance  of  a  strong  apparent  disagreement  between  him  and 
them.  He  seems  to  place  the  story  of  our  Lord's  entrance  into 
the  Temple  to  cast  out  them  that  sold  and  bought  in  it,  at  the 
passover  which  followed  His  first  miracle  ;  they  are  unanimous 
in  connecting  it  with  His  final  entry  into  Jerusalem.  St.  Mat- 
thew's account  of  the  event  is  essentially  the  same  with  that  of 
the  rest.  "  And  Jesus  went  into  the  temple  of  God,  and  cast 
out  all  them  that  sold  and  bought  in  the  temple,  and  overthrew 


70  LECTURE    I. 

the  tables  of  the  moneychangers,  and  the  seats  of  them  that  sold 
doves,  and  said  unto  them.  It  is  written,  My  house  shall  be 
called  the  house  of  prayer  ;  but  ye  have  made  it  a  den  of 
thieves."  Every  one  of  the  three  Evangelists  intimates  that  this 
act  produced  a  great  impression  upon  the  chief  priests ;  every 
one  of  them  seems  to  connect  with  it  the  question,  "  By  what 
authority  doest  thou  these  things  ?  "  and  the  parable  to  which 
that  question  gave  rise.  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Mark  introduce 
the  miracle  of  the  barren  fig-tree,  a  miracle  which  all  have  felt 
to  be  in  so  close  a  connection  witl?  the  withering  of  the  Jewish 
nation,  as  part  of  the  narrative  ;  St,  Luke,  who  had  spoken  of 
his  beholding  the  city  and  weeping  over  it  just  before,  translates 
as  it  were  the  miracle  into  words.  But  why  should  going  into 
the  temple  and  assuming  a  right  to  cleanse  it,  seem  to  the  priests 
so  audacious  an  act  of  authority  .''  Why  should  it  be  linked  in 
the  minds  of  the  Evangelists  to  deeds  and  words  which  beto- 
kened an  approaching  catastrophe  ?  The  whole  after  narrative 
I  believe  will  explain  these  feelings.  If  the  entrance  into  Jeru- 
salem on  an  ass  was  an  assumption  of  that  kingly  honor  which 
he  seemed  previously  to  have  disclaimed,  the  entrance  into  the 
temple  was  a  no  less  significant  assumption  of  the  character  of 
the  divine  Son  which  His  disciples  had  acknowledged,  but  which 
as  yet  they  were  forbidden  to  proclaim.  The  one  act  was  evi- 
dence for  the  charge  before  Pilate,  the  other  was  demonstration 
to  the  chief  priest  that  he  must  be  condemned  as  a  blasphemer 
by  the  Sanhedrim.  What,  call  the  Temple  His  Father's  house, 
claim  a  right  to  drive  out  the  invaders  of  it  because  it  was  such  ! 
Was  not  this  the  highest  proof  that  He  had  committed  that  of- 
fence for  which  the  law  had  appointed  stoning  ?  Accordingly 
the  parable  which  I  have  considered  already  apart  from  its  con- 
nection, and  merely  in  illustration  of  the  parables  generally,  has 
the  most  direct  and  obvious  bearing  upon  this  especial  act.  The 
Son  was  come  to  claim  the  fruits  of  the  vineyard  from  the  hus- 
bandmen ;  the  stone  had  been  brought  in,  which  was  the  ground 
and  corner-stone  of  the  Temple,  that  it  might  be  seen  how  the 
builders  would  deal  with  it. 


THE    BAPTISM    OF   JOHN.  7^ 


THE    BAPTISM    OF    JOHN. 


I  must  not,  however,  pass  over  the  words  common  to  all  the 
three  Evangelists,  which  introduce  the  parable.     "  And  when  he 
was  come  into  the  temple,  the  chief  priests  and  the  elders  of  the 
people  came  unto  him  as  he  w^s  teaching,  and  said,  By  what  au- 
thority doest  thou  these  things  ?  and  who  gave  thee  this  author- 
ity ?     And  Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  them,  I  also  will   ask 
you  one  thing,  which  if  ye  tell  me,  I  in  like  wise  will  tell  you  by 
what  authority  I  do  these  things.     The  baptism  of  John,  whence 
was  it  ?  from  heaven,  or  of  men  ?     And  they  reasoned  with  them- 
selves, saying.  If  we  shall  say,  From   heaven  ;  he  will   say  unto 
us,  Why  did   ye  not  then  believe  him  ?     But  if  we   shall   say.  Of 
men  ;  we  fear  the  people  ;  for  all  hold  John  as  a  prophet.     And 
they  'answered  Jesus,  and   said.  We  cannot  tell.     And  he   said 
unto    them,    Neither  tell   I   you  by  what  authority   I   do   these 
things."     One  part  of  the  value  of  this  passage  consists,  as  all 
hav^ perceived,  in  the  witness  which  it  bears  to  the  general  law 
that  those  who  have   not   profited  by  a  preparatory  dispensation 
contract  an  incapacity  for  a  higher  one.     But  it  must  not  be  for- 
gotten that  the  chief  priests  are  here  especially  spoken  of,  in  dis- 
tinction from,  even  in  contrast  with,  the  people  at  large  ;  nay,  in 
St.  Matthew's   Gospel  with  the   grosser  part  of  the  people,  with 
the  publicans  and  harlots.     The  passage  then  must  be  compared 
with   the  words  in  which   St.  John   addressed  the   Scribes   and 
Pharisees  when  they  came   out  to   his  baptism  ;  "  Oh  generation 
of  vipers,  who  hath  warned  you  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come  ? 
l^iink  not  to   say  within  yourselves,  We   have  Abraham   to  our 
father  ;  for  God  is  able  of  these  stones  to  raise  up  children  unto 
Abraham."     The  whole   sin  of  the  Pharisees  is  brought  out  in 
that  sentence,  the   height  and  the  meanness  of  their  ambition. 
They  were  proud   of  being   Abraham's   children  ;  they  did  not 
think  it  possible  that  the  benefit  of  that  position  could  be  ever 
taken  from  them  ;  they  did  not  care  to  be  God's  children.     To 
have  the  lower  honor  to   themselves  was  better  than  to  have   the 


72  LECTURE    I. 

higher  honor  shared  with  those  whom  they  looked  upon  as 
mere  stones.  They  were  therefore  wrapped  up  in  a  reh'gious 
atheism,  satisfied  without  feeling  that  they  stood  in  any  relation 
towards  God.  Of  this  sin,  which  was  a  proof  that  they  had  for- 
gotten the  blessings  of  their  own  covenant,  John  called  on  them 
to  repent.  They  were  to  turn  from  Abraham  to  the  God  of 
Abraham  ;  not  to  glory  in  their  strength  or  in  their  wisdom,  but 
in  this,  that  they  might  know  Him  who  executed  righteousness 
and  judgment  upon  the  earth.  If  they  did  that.  He  would  re- 
veal Himself  to  them.  There  was  One  among  them  who  would 
baptize  them  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire.  The  chief 
priests  had  not  heeded  that  call;  therefore  they  could  not  know 
by  what  authority  Christ  did  these  things.  They  wished  to  be 
rulers  themselves  in  the  temple,  when  He  whose  it  was  had  sud- 
denly come  to  refine  and  to  purify  it.  They  did  not  know  who 
He  was,  but  they  had  an  instinct  that  He  was  one  whom  they 
ought  to  obey,  therefore  they  said,  "  Come,  let  us  kill  him,  and 
the  inheritance  shall  be  ours." 

PAYING   TRIBUTE   TO    C^SAR. 

"  Then  went  the  Pharisees,  and  took  counsel  how  they  might 
entangle  him  in  his  talk.  And  they  sent  out  unto  him  their  dis- 
ciples with  the  Herodians,  saying.  Master,  we  know  that  thou  art 
true,  and  teachest  the  way  of  God  in  truth,  neither  carest  thou 
for  any  man  :  for  thou  regardest  not  the  person  of  men.  Tell 
us  therefore,  What  thinkest  thou  ?  Is  it  lawful  to  give  tribute 
unto  Caesar,  or  not  ?  But  Jesus  perceived  their  wickedness,  and 
said.  Why  tempt  ye  me,  ye  hypocrites  ?  Shew  me  the  tribute- 
money.  And  they  brought  unto  him  a  penny.  And  he  saith 
unto  them.  Whose  is  this  image  and  superscription  .?  They  say 
unto  him,  Caesar's.  Then  saith  he  unto  them.  Render  therefore 
unto  Caesar  the  things  which  are  Caesar's  ;  and  unto  God  the 
things  that  are  God's."  The  parallel  passages  to  this  are  in  the 
twelfth  chapter  of  Mark,  from  the  13th  to  the  i8th  verses,  and 
in  Luke  the  twentieth  chapter,  from  the    19th  to  the  27th  verses. 


PAYING    TRIBUTE    TO    C^SAR.  "J^ 

The  differences  between  the  three  Evangelists  here  are  very 
slight.  The  most  considerable  is  that  St.  Matthew  introduces 
the  parable  of  the  king  making  a  marriage  for  his  son  between 
the  parable  of  the  husbandmen  in  the  vineyard  and  the  sending 
forth  of  the  spies  ;  that  St.  Mark  and  St.  Luke  refer  that  meas- 
ure directly  to  the  stricken  conscience  and  bitterness  of  the  chief 
priests,  who  perceived  that  these  words  had  bedn  spoken  against 
them.  Probably,  if  we  consider  the  ^second  parable  attentively, 
we  shall  not  feel  this  difference  to  be  a  very  weighty  one.  It  is 
closely  related  in  spirit  and  purpose,  even  in  form,  to  the  other, 
and  may  well  have  deepened  and  sharpened  the  rage  which  it 
excited.  I  need  not  enlarge  much  on  the  question  respecting 
the  tribute-money;  it  will  not  escape,  and  has  not  escaped  any, 
even  the  most  superficial  reader,  that  it  bears  upon  our  Lord's 
pretensions  as  a  king,  and  was  meant  to  prepare  the  way  for  the 
destruction  of  His  reputation  with  the  people,  or  for  an  accusa- 
tion before  the  Roman  Governor,  Nor  has  it  ever,  as  far  as  I 
know,  been  suggested  that  our  Lord,  in  His  answer  to  the  ques- 
tion, renounced  or  explained  away,  even  in  the  slightest  degree, 
the  dignity  which  He  had  seemed  to  assert  when  He  entered  the 
city.  What  I  would  chiefly  complain  of  in  the  interpreters  of 
the  passage  is,  that  they  have  led  their  readers  to  admire  a  kind 
of  dexterity  in  our  Lord's  answer,  as  if  it  were  indeed  an  evasion 
of  the  question,  as  if  it  did  not  carry  out  the  whole  meaning  of 
His  previous  teaching,  and  present  it  in  a  new  and  striking  ap- 
plication, as  if  it  were  not  full  of  the  most  solemn  reproof  to  the 
Pharisees  and  Herodians,  and  the  profoundest  lesson  to  the 
whole  Jewish  nation  respecting  the  secret  of  its  slavery.  What 
was  the  deliverance  the  Pharisees  dreamed  of,  and  sought  for.? 
A  deliverance  from  the  payment  of  tribute  to  Caesar.  And  why 
was  that  the  great,  cause  of  their  lamentation  .?  Because  their 
hearts  were  in  bondage  to  covetousness,  because  they  knew  noth- 
ing of  any  more  ignominious  service  than  that  which  was  signi- 
fied by  the  presence  of  the  publican,  any  emancipation  greatei 
than  that  which  was  implied  in  his  exaction  being  withdrawn. 
But    whose    is    this    image    and   superscription    on   the    tribute- 


74  LECTURE    I. 

money  ?  Is  it  not  Caesar's  ?  Why  should  it  not  go  to  him  ? 
Whose  is  the  image  in  which  you  are  made  ?  What  superscrip- 
tion is  written  on  your  hearts  ?  Render  them  to  the  invisible 
God,  claim  Him  for  your  King,  and  your  chains  drop  off  ;  you 
are  slaves  no  longer.  Christ  then  did  not  merely  say  by  this 
answer,  "  I  am  not  come  now  to  disturb  the  government  of  the 
Caesars,"  but  He  showed  why  He  was  not  come  to  disturb  it, 
why  He  could  not  effectually  deliver  the  nation  by  setting  them 
free  from  tribute.  He  was  come  to  reveal  the  Kingdom  of  God 
to  them,  to  tell  them  that  they  were  God's  servants,  and  not  Cae- 
sar's ;  He  was  come,  therefore,  to  accomplish  all  that  the  people 
expected  from  Him,  if  they  had  known  what  they  expected  ;  He 
was  come  to  undermine  the  tyranny  of  the  Caesars,  the  tyranny 
of  the  Pharisees,  all  other  tyranny  in  the  world.  Pharisees,  He- 
rodians,  Romans,  had  a  right  to  be  suspicious  of  Him.  He  was 
far  more  really  dangerous  to  them,  and  they  were  beginning  to 
know  it,  than  all  the  incendiaries  who  had  ever  exhorted  the 
Israelites  to  throw  off  their  yoke. 

THE    SADDUCEES    AND    THE    RESURRECTION. 

"The  same  day  came  to  him  the  Sadducees,  which  say  that 
there  is  no  resurrection,  and  asked  him,  saying,  Master,  Moses 
said.  If  a  man  die,  having  no  children,  his  brother  shall  marry 
his  wife,  and  raise  up  seed  unto  his  brother.  Now  there  were 
with  us  seven  brethren  ;  and  the  first,  when  he  had  married  a 
wife,  deceased,  and,  having  no  issue,  left  his  wife  unto  his  broth- 
er :  likewise  the  second  also,  and  the  third,  unto  the  seventh. 
And  last  of  all  the  woman  died  also.  Therefore  in  the  resur- 
rection whose  wife  shall  she  be  of  the  seven  ?  for  they  all  had 
her.  Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  them.  Ye  do  err,  not  know- 
ing the  scriptures,  nor  the  power  of  God.  For  in  the  resurrec- 
tion they  neither  marry,  nor  are  given  in  marriage,  but  are  as  the 
angels  of  God  in  heaven.  But  as  touching  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead,  have  ye  not  read  that  which  was  spoken  unto  you  by 
God,  saying.  I  am  the  God  of  Abraham,  and  the   God  of   Isaac, 


THE    SADDUCEES    AND    THE    RESURRECTION.  75 

and  the  God  of  Jacob  ?  God  is  not  the  God  of  the  dead,  but  of 
the  living.  And  when  the  muhitude  heard  this,  they  were  as- 
tonished at  his  doctrine."  '  It  was  clearly  intimated  in  our  Lord's 
observation  respecting  the  leaven,  that  there  was  a  habit  of 
mind  which  was  common  to  the  opposing  sects  of  the  Jews.  It 
is  not  enough  to  say  that  their  common  dislike  to  Him  proved 
the  existence  of  this  radical  similarity ;  it  was  quite  certain  that 
in  the  course  of  their  opposition  the  inward  nature  of  it  would 
discover  itself.  Here  was  an  occasion  in  which  the  Sadducees 
took  up  the  line  of  argument  which  would  at  other  times  have 
brought  them  in  most  direct  collision  with  the  Pharisees.  They 
strove  to  embarrass  our  Lord  with  a  case  which  must  have 
served  for  the  topic  of  many  a  debate,  and  many  a  jest,  when 
they  were,  refuting  the  doctors  of  the  other  school.  And  yet 
here  our  Lord  detected  a  temper  of  mind  very  closely  akin  to 
that  which  He  had  just  exposed  in  the  men  who  asked  Him 
whether  it  was  l<iwful  to  pay  tribute  unto  Caesar.  The  idea  of 
God  as  a  Lord  of  the  heart  and  reins,  as  a  spiritual  Being  rela- 
ted to  His  spiritual  creature,  was  wanting  in  the  Pharisee,  it  was 
wanting  also  in  the  Sadducee.  Neither,  therefore,  w^ere  able  to 
enter  into  the  history  of  their  forefathers.  The  old  common- 
wealth of  Israel,  the  kingdom  of  David,  the  new  city  after  the 
captivity,  was  not  regarded  by  the  Pharisees  as  really  under  the 
dominion  of  an  invisible  Lord,  who  was  reigning  over  it  from 
generation  to  generation  :  it  was  only  a  state  separated  by  cer- 
tain religious  privileges  and  distinctions  from  all  others,  and  en- 
titled to  look  down  upon  them.  The  Roman  yoke  therefore  was 
bitterly  galling;  but  it  never  led  them  to  cry  out  for  a  real, 
divine  government,  only  for  a  government  in  which  they  should 
be  supreme.  The  Sadducees  had  neither  less  nor  more  appre- 
hension of  a  living  God.  They  were  not '  nominally  atheists, 
probably  the  most  violent  Pharisee  would  not  have  given  them 
that  name  ;  but  their  belief  was  in  a  dead  god,  in  one  who  had 
established  a  law,  or  laid  down  maxims  of  morality,  which  men 
were  thenceforth  to  keep  for  themselves,  by  which  they  were  to 
regulate  their  conduct.     But  that  this  Being  was  still, — nay,  that 


^6  LECTURE    r. 

He  had  ever  stood  in  any  actual  relation  to  His  creatures,  that 
He  could  communicate  with  them,  or  that  they  could  in  any  ac- 
tual sense  call  upon  Him,  they  did  not  and  could  not  believe. 
Therefore  they  logically,  consistently,  honestly,  repudiated  the 
idea  of  a  resurrection.  It  was  a  loss,  no  doubt,  to  be  without 
the  relic  and  shell  of  such  a  conviction,  to  have  said  distinctly 
to  themselves,  "  Our  life  is  bounded  by  the  conditions  of  it  in 
this  world  ;  when  the  appearances  of  things  disappear,  we  shall 
disappear  with  them  ;  the  laws  which  govern  us  are  merely  the 
circumstances  in  which  we  dwell.  Man  has  nothing  in  him  but 
that  which  is  determined  by  measures  of  time  and  space."  But 
so  the  Pharisee  really  believed  also.  His  doctrine  of  a  resurrec- 
tion was  merely  the  carrying  out  beyond  the  grave  of  all  the  low, 
selfish,  carnal  notions  and  maxims  which  had  governed  him  on 
this  side  of  it.  To  this  cause  we  may  attribute  perhaps  the 
mildness  of  the  rebukes,  "  Ye  do  err,  not  knowing  the  Scrip- 
tures, nor  the  power  of  God,"  as  compared  with  the  "Why  tempt 
ye  me,  ye  hypocrites  1 "  in  the  former  case.  But  the  practical 
correction  of  the  error,  was  even  deeper,  and  yet  simpler  than 
that  which  defined  the  difference  between  the  obligations  to  Cae- 
sar and  to  God.  "  Have  ye  not  read  in  the  Scriptures  that  God 
saith,  I  am  the  God  of  Abraham,  and  of  Isaac,  and  of  Jacob  .'' 
He  is  not  the  God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the  living."  Whatever  you 
may  think  about  the  prophets,  you  acknowledge  the  simple  rec- 
ords of  the  Book  of  Genesis  as  having  some  worth.  The  princi- 
ple of  the  resurrection  is  there.  Once  believe  in  God  as  the 
same  yesterday  and  to-day,  as  the  God  of  men  from  generation 
to  generation,  as  really  connected  with  them  ;  once  believe  Him 
to  be  ever  alive,  and  you  believe  in  their  life.  And  you  become 
disentangled  from  these  notions  which  have  led  you  astray  when 
you  were  considering  whose  wife  the  woman  should  be  of  the 
seven  ;  for  you  begin  to  contemplate  men  in  their  higher  relation 
to  God,  and  therefore  in  higher  relations  to  each  other."  Here 
is  the  preparation  for  all  the  after  teaching  respecting  the  resur- 
rection. Its  ground  is  laid  in  the  deepest  theology,  and  yet  in 
the    earliest    revelation    of    God.       Thus    were    the     Sadducees 


WHAT    THINK    YE    OF    CHRIST  ?  7/ 

taught,  and  the  Pharisees  no  less,  that  to  understand  and  believe 
in  a  resurrection  they  must  seek  for  some  One  in  whom  they 
could  realize  an  actual  relation  to  an  actual  and  living  Being. 
Thus  was  the  question  presented  to  their  minds  whether  their 
dislike  to  the  idea  of  a  Son  of  God  was  not  the  real  inward 
ground  of  their  dislike  to  the  idea  of  a  resurrection,  and  whether 
without  the  belief  of  a  Son  of  God  a  resurrection  is  any  thing 
but  a  dark  and  fearful  vision  of  a  probable  promulgation  and  ex- 
tension of  the  world's  wretchedness. 

WHAT   THINK    YE    OF    CHRIST? 

"While  the  Pharisees  were  gathered  together,  Jesus  asked 
them,  saying.  What  think  ye  of  Christ  ?  whose  son  is  he  ?  They 
say  unto  him,  The  Son  of  David.  He  saith  unto  them,  How 
then  doth  David  in  spirit  call  him  Lord,  saying,  The  Lord  said 
unto  my  Lord,  Sit  thou  on  my  right  hand,  till  I  make  thine  ene- 
mies thy  footstool  ?  If  David  then  call  him  Lord,  how  is  he  his 
son  ?  And  no  man  was  able  to  answer  him  a  word,  neither 
durst  any  man  from  that  day  forth  ask  him  any  more  questions." 
This  question  is  given,  with  slight  variations,  in  the  twelfth  of 
Mark,  from  the  35th  to  the  38th  verses,  and  in  the  twentieth 
of  Luke,  from  the  41st  to  the  45th  verses.  It  is  one  of  the  few 
questions  which  our  Lord  is  said  by  the  three  Evangelists  to 
have  directly  addressed  to  the  people,  or  to  the  scribes,  without 
any  immediate  provocation  upon  their  part.  It  occurs  in  close 
connection  with  all  the  passages  which  we  have  lately  been  con- 
sidering, and  it  is  placed  in  all  the  Gospels  very  shortly  before 
the  last  Passover.  All  evidently  considered  that  though  it  led 
to  no  direct  or  obvious  result,  though  it  was  a  short  question  and 
one  which  found  no  answer,  though  our  Lord  raised  the  difficulty 
without  giving  the  solution,  it  yet  deserved  an  emphatical,  en- 
during record.  Did  not  every  event  they  had  been  recording  or 
were  about  to  record,  in  fact,  contain  this  question  ?  Were  not 
those  events  taken  in  connection  with  the  whole  past  history  of 
the  nation,  with  all  the  future  history  of  the  human  race,  to  give 


78  LECTURE    I. 

the  reply?  "  How  is  it  possible  that  Christ  can  be  both  the  Son 
of  David  and  the  Lord  of  David  ?  How  can  He  fail  to  be  either 
if  your  Scriptures  are  true  ?  "  This  was  the  tormenting  awful 
paradox  to  the  Pharisee,  the  paradox  in  his  own  being  as  well 
as  in  the  divine  Books,  from  which  he  could  find  but  one  way  of 
delivering  himself.  After  eighteen  centuries  it  is  still  the  ques- 
tion which  is  presented  to  every  Jew  and  every  Christian  man, 
and  which  Christians  as  well  as  Jews  are  disposed  to  get  rid  of 
almost  as  the  Pharisee  did.  If  there  is  to  be  a  King,  a  Son  of 
Man  over  Men,  must  He  not  be  the  Son  of  God  ?  If  there  is  a 
Son  of  God  must  He  not  be  the  King  over  men  ?  Could  the 
Christ  fulfil  one  character  unless  He  fulfilled  the  other?  The 
Crucifixion  was  man's  attempt  to  remove  the  difficulty;  the  Res- 
urrection was  God's. 

THE  PROPHECY  OF  THE  LAST  DAYS. 

[Matthew  xxiv. ;  Mark  xiii.  ;  Luke  xxi.  ver.  5,,  to  the  end.] 
We  come  now  to  those  memorable  chapters  which  contain  the 
report  of  our  Lord's  conversation  with  His  disciples  when  they 
showed  Him  the  goodly  stones  of  the  temple.  I  shall  follow  St. 
Matthew  as  I  have  done  hitherto,  noticing  any  memorable  differ- 
ences in  the  other  Evangelists  by  the  way. 

I.  There  is  no  difference  about  the  occasion  which  suggested 
the  discourse.  The  disciples  were  struck  with  the  goodly  stones 
of  the  temple.  Whatever  else  His  words  may  have  imported, 
they  declared  directly  that  one  stone  was  upon  another  of  that 
building  which  should  not  be  thrown  down.  This  is  too  obvious 
a  remark  to  have  escaped  any  one's  notice,  but  its  very  obvious- 
ness may  have  hindered  it  from  receiving  all  the  attention  which 
it  deserves.  Consider  what  that  building  meant  to  a  Jew.  Con- 
sider that  the  tabernacle  was  the  sign  of  God's  presence  in  the 
nation,  that  the  loss  of  it  while  it  was  in  Shiloh  was  looked  upon 
as  the  temporary  downfall  of  the  nation  itself,  that  its  removal 
to  the  hill  over  Jerusalem  was  connected  with  the  Davidian 
covenant, — with  the   past   and  future    history, — with   the  most 


THE  PROPHECY  OF  THE  LAST  DAYS.         79 

rapturous  and  the  most  deep  of  the  Psahns  in  which  the  meaning 
of  that  history  is  gathered  up.  Consider  what  the  building  and 
dedication  of  the  temple  itself,  and  the  removal  of  the  Ark  into 
it  by  Solomon,  implied.  Consider  how  much  of  the  prophecy 
of  Isaiah  turns  upon  that  passage,  where  he  speaks  of  his  sitting 
in  the  temple  in  the  year  that  King  Uzziah  died,  and  seeing  the 
glory  of  the  Lord  which  filled  it.  Consider  that  the  whole 
prophecy  of  Jeremiah,  and  his  Lamentations  afterwards,  refer  to 
the  expected  or  accomplished  desecration  of  that  temple  ;  that 
all  the  visions  of  Ezekiel  begin,  are  bound  up  with,  and  conclude 
with  its  desertion  and  its  restoration  ;  that  its  present  downfall 
and  the  anticipation  of  a  future  abomination  of  desolation  to  be 
set  up  in  the  midst  of  it,  connect  themselves  with  the  history  of 
Daniel,  and  of  all  the  Jews  in  the  captivity ;  that  the  temple  is 
the  obvious  subject  of  the  prophecies  of  Haggai  and  Zechariah; 
that  the  expectation  of  One  who  should  come  to  purify  it,  and 
the  priests  within  it,  seems  to  be  the  central  thought  inMalachi  ; 
consider  this,  and  we  shall  have  some  apprehension  of  the  re- 
lation of  this  subject  to  all  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  and 
so  far  as  these  books  describe  and  interpret  the  purposes  of  God, 
to  all  His  discipline  and  education  of  mankind.  There  was  the 
place  which  signified  to  the  Jew,  and  declared  to  the  universe, 
that  a  God  whom  the  eye  could  not  see  nor  the  ear  hear,  who 
might  not  be  conceived  in  the  likeness  of  any  thing  in  Heaven, 
or  earth,  or  under  the  earth,  had  yet  a  real  substantial  being,  an 
actual  connection  with  his  creatures,  was  dwelling  near  them, 
might  be  approached  by  them.  Of  this  building  our  Lord  told 
His  disciples  not  one  stone  should  be  left  upon  another.  What 
could  they  think  of  such  an  announcement  ?  St.  Matthew  says 
in  words — the  other  two  Evangelists  intimate — what  their  feel- 
ings was,  "  Tell  us,"  they  said  privately  as  He  sat  on  the  Mount 
of  Olives,  "when  shall  these  things  be,  and  what  shall  be  the 
sign  of  Thy  coming,  and  of  the  end  of  the  age .''  "  Either  the  de- 
struction of  the  temple  must  be  the  sign  that  God  had  left  the 
world,  the  commencement  of  an  absolute  atheism,  or  it  must  be 
the  sign  of  the  commencement  of  a  higher  state  of  things,  of  the 


80  LECTURE    I. 

kingdom  of  One  greater  than  the  temple,  who  should  bring  God 
and  man  into  nearer  relations  with  eaCh  other,  who  should  prove 
the  God  of  Abraham  to  be  indeed  the  Lord  of  the  whole  earth. 
One  of  these  alternatives  I  conceive  the  Apostles  must  have 
taken.  They  had  faith  and  courage  amidst  the  utmost  perplex- 
ity and  confusion  to  think  that  their  Master  had  spoken  truly 
when  He  said  that  the  Kingdom  of  God  was  at  hand.  We  seem 
to  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  they  were  mistaken.  Our 
Lord  did  not  tell  them  so. 

IL  I  do  not  propose  to  go  into  any  inquiry  respecting  the 
real  force  of  the  words  "  Thy  coming,  and  the  end  of  the  age," 
nor  even  respecting  the  force  which  the  Apostles  at  this  time 
must  have  attached  to  such  words.  Their  .actual  meaning  is  pre- 
cisely what  we  have  to  ascertain  from  the  subsequent  history  and 
revelation  ;  this  discourse  of  our  Lord's  upon  earth  being  itself 
one  of  our  great  guides  in  the  inquiry.  The  views  of  the 
Apostles  were- of  course  confused  about  this  subject  as  they  were 
about  all  others,  about  the  Christ  Himself  and  His  kingdom, 
about  His  relation  to  themselves,  and  to  their  nation,  and  to  the 
universe.  This  confusion  is  assumed  throughout  the  E\  angel- 
ists,  so  that  those  who  attach  weight  to  their  statements  must 
acknowledge  it  much  more  readily  than  any  modern  philosopher 
can.  But  it  is  quite  a  different  thing  to  say  that  the  words  which 
they  used  were  wrong  words,  or  that  they  expected  too  decisive 
a  fulfilment  of  them,  or  that  they  were  wrong  in  placing  that  ful- 
filment in  their  own  time.  Religious  people  in  our  day  may  at- 
tach to  the  words  Heaven  and  Hell,  and  Judgment,  very  vague 
and  very  false  notions  indeed,  notions  at  variance  with  Scripture, 
borrowed  from  heathenism,  self-destructive.  Yet  those  who 
labor  to  correct  these  dangerous  perplexities,  may  feel  that  the 
words  themselves  have  a  tremendous  reality  and  significance, 
and  that  the  force  of  them  is  not  exaggerated,  but  fearfully  weak- 
ened, by  the  vulgar  apprehensions  of  them.  So  we  may  believe 
also  that  the  Apostles  were  not  using  too  large  words  when  they 
asked  this  question  of  our  Lord,  words  which  demand  a  looser 
and  vaguer  interpretation  than  they  bore   in  their  minds,  before 


THE  PROPHECY  OF  THE  LAST  DAYS.         8l 

we  can  adopt  them  ;  we  may  hold  that  they  had  not  yet  learnt 
to  give  them  a  sufficiently  rigid  definition,  to  understand  them  in 
their  actual  and  literal  power. 

III.  "  And  Jesus  answering  said  unto  them,  Take  heed  that 
no  man  deceive  you  :  for  many  shall  come  in  my  Name,  saying, 
I  am  Christ,  and  shall  deceive  many."  Few  interpreters  have 
doubted  that  these  words  were  intended  as  warnings  to  the  par- 
ticular persons  who  were  then  looking  at  the  buildings  of  the 
temple.  .  And  supposing  that  this  was  actually  the  admonition 
which  our  Lord  gave  them,  one  can  see  how  exactly  it  was  in 
accordance  with  all  His  previous  instructions  and  warnings. 
The  great  peril  of  the  Apostles,  as  of  all  men,  was  that  of  being 
led  away  by  a  false  Christ — that  of  being  led  to  look  for  a  King 
who  should  come  with  such  signs  as  the  Pharisees  demanded  of 
a  Christ,  or  such  as  the  people  demanded  of  Him — with  signs 
altogether  different  in  kind  from  those  with  which  Jesus  had 
come.  Many  such.  He  assures  them,  would  show  themselves, 
many  persons  claiming  to  be  the  heirs  of  David's  throne,  to 
bring  with  them  the  marks  and  credentials  of  a  divine  mission. 
How  was  it  possible,  the  Apostles  might  well  ask  themselves, 
that  after  they  had  believed  Jesus  to  be  the  Christ,  they  should 
ever  imagine  another  to  have  that  name.  But  the  warning  was 
given  them.  They  must  have  believed  with  wonder  even  then 
that  they  needed  it  ;  in  time  they  would  know  why  they  needed 
it. 

IV.  "Ye  shall  hear  of  wars  and  rumors  of  wars  :  see  that  ye 
be  not  troubled  :  for  all  these  things  must  needs  be  ;  but  the  end 
is  not  yet.  For  nation  shall  rise  against  nation,  and  kingdom 
against  kingdom  ;  and  there  shall  be  famines,  and  pestilence, 
and  earthquakes,  in  divers  places ;  all  these  things  are  the  be- 
ginnings of  sorrows."  Still  every  word  that  is  spoken  appeals  to 
be  addressed  in  the  most  direct  manner  to  the  Apostles.  "  Ye 
shall  hear;  see  that  ye  be  not  troubled."  If  we  suppose  that 
this  does  not  refer  to  actual  tidings  which  would  reach  the 
Apostles'  ears,  rumors  which  would  prevail  in  Judaea,  and  would 
have  first  an  immediate  reference  to  insurrections  in   that  land, 

6 


S2  LECTURE    I. 

to  quarrels  between  the  rulers  in  its  immediate  neighborhood, 
to  threatenings  of  destruction  from  the  imperial  power,  we  show 
the  most  strange  indifference  to  accuracy  of  language.  If  any 
one  is  scandalized  by  the  words,  "  nation  shall  rise  against 
nation,  and  kingdom  against  kingdom,'"  and  shall  ask  how  such 
general  language  could  apply  to  the  condition  and  case  of  a  city 
in  one  province  of  the  empire,  I  say.  Read  the  history  of  the 
Roman  Empire  generally,  and  see  how  events  belonging  to  par- 
ticular nations  and  places  affected  the  position  and  feeling  of 
the  legions  in  those  places — led  to  disputes,  rivalries,  military 
insurrections,  conflicts  between  particular  leaders — finally,  spread 
with  magnetic  influence  through  the  empire,  encouraged  the 
legions  in  the  most  distant  provinces  to  set  up  their  leaders,  till 
every  part  of  the  world,  and  the  great  centre  of  it,  was  ultimately 
brought  within  the  circle  of  the  contention.  Or  read  the  records 
of  the  particular  period,  from  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Nero  to 
the  overthrow  of  Jerusalem,  not  in  Josephus,  but  in  the  histories 
of  Tacitus,  and  see  how  much  the  most  stirring  events  of  that 
tremendous  time  of  convulsions  were  associated  with  the  prov- 
ince of  Syria,  and  with  events  of  which  every  Jew  must  have 
had  the  bitterest  experience.  So  that  whether  or  not  we  admit 
the  existence  of  a  divine  purpose  for  the  nations  and  mankind, 
which  was  connected  with  the  calamities  that  came  upon  Jeru- 
salem, we  shall  be  compelled  to  admit,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that 
the  whole  world  must  have  seemed  to  a  Jew  to  be  sharing  the 
convulsions  which  were  shaking  his  own  land  to  its  foundations. 
I  do  not  use  this  word  convulsions,  for  the  sake  of  explaining 
metaphorically,  or  morall}',  the  words  "  earthquakes,  pestilences, 
and  famines  in  divers  places  ; "  I  take  these  words  to  mean 
precisely  what  they  seem  to  mean  ;  I  do  not  think  that  any  one 
who  reads  Tacitus  can  doubt  that  they  occurred  just  as  they  are 
here  said  to  occur  m  divers  places.  There  was  not  to  be  2,  general 
physical  earthquake  commensurate  with  the  great  political  earth- 
quake ;  but  there  would  be  enough  to  be  signs  and  proofs  that 
the  physical  world  sympathizes  with  the  moral,  is  under  the  same 
ruler,  does  homage  to  its  laws.     It  would  seem  as  if  our  Lord's 


THE  PROPHECY  OF  THE  LAST  DAYS.  83 

object  was  especially  to  warn  His  disciples  that  while  they  took 
notice  of  these  signs  they  should  not  be  distracted  by  them,  or 
think  them  the  great  indications  that  God  was  come  out  of  His 
place  to  judge  the  earth.  "  All  these  things  are  the  begifining 
of  sorrows." 

V.  "Then  shall  they  deliver  you  up  to  the  afflicted,  and 
shall  kill  you  :  and  ye  shall  be  hated  of  all  nations  for 
my  Name's  sake.  And  then  shall  many  be  offended,  and 
shall  betray  one  another,  and  shall  hate  one  another.  And 
many  false  prophets  shall  rise,  and  shall  deceive  many. 
And  because  iniquity  shall  abound,  the  love  of  many  shall 
wax  cold.  But  he  that  shall  endure  unto  the  end,  the  same 
shall  be  saved.  And  this  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom  shall  be 
preached  in  all  the  world  for  a  witness  .unto  all  nations  ;  and 
then  shall  the  end  come."  I  have  taken  this  entire  paragraph 
because  the  words  which  wind  it  up,  stand  in  such  direct  con- 
trast to  those  which  concluded  the  previous  one.  "  These  are 
the  beginnmgoi  sorrows."  "  Then  shall  the  ^/z^come."  Wars, 
rumors  of  wars,  earthquakes,  and  famines,  are  not  the  signs  of 
the  end.  They  are  but  preludes  to  it.  The  preaching  of  the 
Gospel  of  the  Kingdom  is  the  sign  that  the  end  is  coming.  But 
I  have  also  brought  these  verses  together,  because  I  think  that 
the  great  difficulty  which  is  supposed  to  lie  in  the  14th  is  re- 
moved by  the  9th.  "Ye  shall  be  hated  of  all  nations."  "The 
Gospel  shall  be  preached  in  all  the  world  for  a  witness  unto  all 
nations."  Now  I  do  not  suppose  that  the  mere  words  "  the 
whole  world  "  would  hinder  any  one  from  believing  that  these 
words  were  fulfilled  in  the  apostolical  age.  Even  the,  most  care- 
less reader  would  recollect  at  once  that  Augustus  Caesar  com- 
manded all  the  world  to  be  taxed,  and  would  suppose  that  the 
expression  in  one  case  meant  the  same  as  in  the  other.  The 
stumbling-block  is  in  the  other  words  "all  nations."  But  these 
words  we  see  had  just  before  been  used  in  a  sentence  which  inusi 
apply  directly  to  the  apostles.  The  preaching  of  this  Gospel  of 
the  kingdom  then  as  a  witness  to  all  the  nations  or  all  the  Gen- 
tiles, would  seem  to  be  precisely  that  which  a  Jew  would  have 


84  LECTURE    I. 

concluded  it  to  be.  If  all  the  different  representatives  of  the 
Gentile  races  with  which  the  Jews  were  acquainted,  in  whose 
lands  they  were  settled,  were  told  that  Jesus  was  their  King,  that 
they  were  as  much  parts  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  as  the  Jews, 
the  witness  would  have  been  borne  which  is  here  spoken  of.  If 
it  is  to  be  a  contest  of  special  pleading,  I  could  special  plead 
also.  I  could  say — if'  the  different  great  stems  of  the  modern 
European  population  and  of  the  Transatlantic  population  also 
were  in  Asia,  non  constat  \\\2X  all  the  different  tribes  of  the  earth, 
now  known  to  us  or  to  be  hereafter  known,  were  not  brought 
within  the  sound  of  the  Gospel  of  this  kingdom,  and  that  without 
adopting  any  loose  and  vague  tradition  respecting  the  missions 
of  the  apostles  to  the  different  distant  regions  of  the  earth.  But 
there  is  no  need  of  such  arguments  ;  I  simply  adhere  to  the  text. 
The  words  are  addressed  to  the  Apostles  that  they  were  to  be 
hated  by  all  the  nations.  In  whatever  sense  they  understood 
that  to  be  true,  they  must  have  understood  that  they  were  to  be 
the  instruments  of  preaching  the  Gospel  to  all  the  nations; 
consequently  that  after  something  which  they  had  done, — at  a 
certain  time  within  their  age, — the  end  was  to  come.  Many, 
no  doubt,  may  shrink  from  the  notion  that  iniquity  abounded, 
and  that  the  love  of  many  in  the  Christian  world  waxed  cold 
during  the  apostolical  age.  Whether  facts  justify  that  skepti- 
cism, we  shall  be  able  to  determine  better  when  we  come  to  con- 
sider the  apostolical  writings,  and  some  remarkable  testimonies 
of  Christian  antiquity,  which  will  also  bear  directly  upon  the 
question  of  the  rise  of  false  prophets  in  the  same  period. 

VI.  *'  When  therefore  ye  see  the  abomination  of  desolation 
spoken  of  by  Daniel  the  prophet  standing  in  the  holy  place, 
(whoso  readeth  let  him  understand,)  then  let  them  which  be  in 
Judaea  flee  into  the  mountains  :  let  him  which  is  on  the  house- 
top not  come  down  to  take  any  thing  out  of  his  house  :  neither 
let  him  which  is  in  the  field  return  back  to  take  his  clothes.  And 
woe  unto  them  that  are  with  child,  and  to  them  that  give  suck  in 
those  days  !  But  pray  ye  that  your  flight  be  not  in  the  winter, 
neither  on  the  sabbath-day  :  for  then  shall  be  great  tribulation, 


THE  PROPHECY  OF  THE  LAST  DAYS.         85 

such  as  was  not  since  the  beginning  of  the  world  to  this  time, 
no,  nor  ever  shall  be.  And  except  those  days  should  be  short- 
ened, there  should  no  flesh  be  saved :  but  for  the  elect's  sake 
those  days  shall  be  shortened."  Without  professing  to  deter- 
mine what  was  the  precise  desecration  of  the  Temple  here  indi- 
cated, I  would  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  our  Lord 
continues  to  fix  the  thoughts  of  His  disciples  upon  that  object  on 
which  their  eyes  were  already  fixed  ;  that  the  Temple  is  really 
the  subject  of  His  discourse  just  as  we  should  suppose  from  its 
commencement  that  it  would  be,  and  that  all  the  calamities 
which  are  said  to  be  greater  than  any  the  world  had  seen  or 
would  see,  as  well  as  the  flight  which  is  enjoined  upon  the  dis- 
ciples, are  connected  with  it.  If  the  family  of  Mattathias  had 
no  difliculty  in  determining  when  the  abomination  of  desolation 
had  been  set  up  in  their  days,  the  disciples  might  hope  even  in 
this  time  of  their  half  belief  and  ignorance,  that  they  should  be 
instructed  wherein  consisted  the  more  complete  desertion  of  the 
Divine  presence  which  their  Lord  was  preparing  them  to  expect. 

VH.  "  Then  if  any  man  shall  say  unto  you,  Lo,  here  is  Christ, 
or  there  ;  believe  it  not.  For  there  shall  arise  false  Christs,  and 
false  prophets,  and  shall  show  great  signs  and  w^onders  ;  inso- 
much that,  if  it  were  possible,  they  shall  deceive  the  very  elect. 
Behold,  I  have  told  you  before.  Wherefore  if  they  shall  say 
unto  you,  Behold,  he  is  in  the  desert ;  go  not  forth  :  behold,  he 
is  in  the  secret  chambers  ;  believe  it  not.  For  as  the  lightning 
Cometh  out  of  the  east,  and  shineth  even  unto  the  west ;  so  shall 
also  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man  be.  For  wheresoever  the 
carcase  is,  there  will  the  eagles  be  gathered  together.  Immedi- 
ately after  the  tribulation  of  those  days  shall  the  sun  be  darkened, 
and  the  moon  shall  not  give  her  light,  and  the  stars  shall  fall  from 
heaven,  and  the  powers  of  the  heavens  shall  be  shaken."  That 
the  ''  then  "  here  refers  to  the  event  which  has  been  last  spoken 
of,  that  the  "  you  "  means  some  of  those  who  are  asking  the 
question,  we  should  at  once  conclude  if  we  had  not  very  decisive 
evidence  of  the  contrary ;  until  that  evidence  shall  be  clearly 
made  out  we  must  not  assume  that  words  are  to  be  less  strictly 


86  LECTURE    I. 

construed,  because  they  refer  to  events  of  the  deepest  urgency 
and  solemnity.  Supposing  these  words  then  to  have  their  ob- 
vious signification,  would  they  have  led  the  Apostles  to  think 
first  the  appearing  of  the  Son  of  Man  would  be  in  their  own  age  ? 
I  apprehend  that  there  cannot  be  a  doubt  of  it.  False  Christs 
and  false  profits  would  appear  ;  the  true  Christ  would  appear  to 
confound  them.  The  undoubted  confidence  in  JIi's  appearing 
would  be  the  only  deliverance  from  fAeir  deceptions.  But 
secondly,  would  this  appearing  be  a  visible  one  ?  Most  visible 
I  apprehend  in  its  effects,  most  visible  in  the  signs  which  would 
accompany  it.  But  not  visible  in  that  sense  in  which  the  false 
Christs  and  false  prophets  would  be  visible.  For  would  not 
their  falsehood  consist  in  this  especially,  that  they  would  come 
to  reform  the  world  upon  the  opposite  principle  to  that  on  which 
the  Son  of  God  had  come,  viz.,  to  make  alterations  in  its  surface, 
to  change  the  outside  of  things  ;  whereas  He  had  come  to  lay 
the  axe  to  the  root  of  the  trees.  In  whatever  judgment  in  the 
world  He  manifested  Himself  He  must  come  for  this  end.  How 
then  would  these  words  of  our  Lord  act  upon  the  disciples'  minds, 
supposing  them  really  to  take  them  in,  not  to  pervert  them  ac- 
cording to  previous  notions  of  their  own,  but  to  use  them  for  the 
correction  of  those  notions  ?  Must  they  not  have  said  to  them, 
did  they  not  say  to  them,  '*  all  these  visible  appearances  of  men 
who  lead  you  out  into  the  desert  or  into  the  secret  chamber,  will 
be  very  tempting  indeed  to  you,  because  it  is  the  greatest  tempta- 
tion possible  to  human  beings  to  seek  Me  in  the  outward  world, 
and  not  to  seek  Me  as  the  Lord  of  the  hearts  and  reins,  to  change 
Me  into  a  Caesar,  and  not  regard  Me  as  a  real,  divine  King,  to 
think  of  Me  as  a  judge  sitting  upon  some  exalted  seat  hke 
that  on  which  the  lords  of  the  earth  sit,  and  not  to  think  of  Me 
as  the  Judge  who  looks  down  into  the  depths  of  every  spring  and 
principle  of  action,  into  the  very  inmost  heart  of  society  ;  before 
whose  presence  every  thing  must  stand  revealed  in  its  inward 
nakedness  ;  before  whom  every  falseheod  must  fly  away."  As 
the  lightning  which  lighteneth  from  the  one  part  of  Heaven  and 
shineth  even  to  the  other,  so  shall  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man 


THE  PROPHECY  OF  THE  LAST  DAYS.         8/ 

be.  Mighty  and  divine  words  to  shatter  in  pieces  all  sensual 
dreams  which  substitute  an  apparent  for  a  real  Christ !  "  Think 
not  of  the  desert,  think  not  of  the  chamber,  but  think  of  a  light 
which  is  felt  at  once  in  all  parts  of  Heaven,  and  as  an  illumina- 
ting yet  a  terrific  power  upon  earth,  when  you  want  to  have  a 
symbol  of  my  appearing.  For  do  not  suppose,"  He  seeiDS  to 
go  on,  "  that  it  will  be  only  in  one  place,  just  where  the  temple 
Stands,  that  this  great  judgment  of  which  I  am  telling  you  will 
be  felt  and  realized.  You  Jews  are  scattered  over  all  different 
parts  of  the  earth.  Everywhere  you  bear  about  the  sign  of  a 
divine  covenant,  you  are  intended  to  be  health-givers,  life-givers 
to  the  world.  The  life  has  departed  out  of  the  body,  it  has  be- 
come a  carcase.  Wherever  any  portion  of  it  is  lying  there  will 
be  the  birds  of  prey  descend  to  feed  upon  it,  there  will  God's 
commissioned  destroyers  be  found  gathered  together.  In  all 
these  different  places  there  will  be  a  manifestation  of  the  Son  of 
Man.  There  will  be  clear  tokens  everywhere  that  He  is  come 
out  of  His  place  to  judge  the  chosen  people,  and  through  them 
to  judge  the  whole  earth." 

Vni.  "Immediately  after  the  tribulation  of  those  days  shall 
the  sun  be  darkened,  and  the  moon  shall  not  give  her  light,  and 
the  stars  shall  fall  from  heaven,  and  the  powers  of  the  heavens 
shall  be  shaken  :  and  then  shall  appear  the  sign  of  the  Son  of 
Man  in  heaven  :  and  then  shall  all  the  tribes  of  the  earth  mourn, 
and  they  shall  see  the  Son  of  Man  coming  in  the  clouds  of 
heaven  with  power  and  great  glory.  And  He  shall  send  His 
angels  with  a  great  sound  of  a  trumpet,  and  they  shall  gather 
together  His  elect  from  the  four  winds,  from  one  end  of  heaven 
to  the  other.  Now  learn  a  parable  of  the  fig-tree  ;  When  his 
branch  is  yet  tender,  and  putteth  forth  leaves,  ye  know  that  sum- 
mer is  nigh  :  so  likewise  ye,  when  ye  shall  see  all  these  things, 
know  that  it  is  near,  even  at  the  doors.  Verily  I  say  unto  you, 
This  generation  shall  not  pass  till  all  these  things  be  fulfilled. 
Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away,  but  my  words  shall  not  pass 
away."  There  is  not  the  least  difference  here  in  the  Evangelists 
except  that  there  is   perhaps  something  more  picturesque  in  the 


S8  LECTURE   I. 

words  of  St.  Luke,  "  And  there  shall  be  signs  in  the  sun,  and  in 
the  moon,  and  in  the  stars ;  and  upon  the  earth  distress  of 
nations  with  perplexity  ;  the  sea  and  the  waves  roaring  ;  men's 
hearts  failing  them  for  fear,  and  for  looking  after  those  things 
that  are  coming  on  the  earth  :  for  the  powers  of  heaven  shall  be 
shaken."  A  comparison  of  the  two  passages  seems  to  show  ver}" 
clearly  that  actual  signs  in  the  visible  heavens  must  be  intended 
here,  as  in  the  case  of  which  I  spoke  before.  Whoever  has  in- 
terpreted the  words  to  signify  political  changes  for  the  sake  of 
getting  rid  of  any  physical  allusions,  has  certainly  done  violence 
to  the  text.  St.  Luke's  language  especially  seems  clearly  to  in- 
timate that  physical  appearances  and  convulsions  would  be  those 
that  would  startle  men  most,  as  we  know  they  always  do  ;  which 
would  be  /t'/^  as  most  portentous  and  ominous.  But  ominous 
surely  of  something.  They  are  not  themselves  the  things  which 
they  portend.  There  must  therefore  be  a  justification  for  those 
who  make  "  the  powers  of  heaven  "  to  mean  more  (not  /fss)  than 
mere  signs  in  the  moon  and  stars.  When  they  have  said  they 
mean  dynasties  I  cannot  feel  that  they  are  to  be  condemned  as 
weakening  the  force  of  the  words,  for  surely  the  fall  of  a  dynasty 
is  a  much  greater  event  than  the  eruption  of  a  volcano.  But  I 
do  not  think  that  they  have  reached  the  full  force  of  the  words, 
or  that  their  interpretation  is  literal  enough. 

All  the  dynasties  of  the  old  world  confessed  something  higher 
than  themselves.  The  king  confessed  kings  to  whom  he  must 
do  homage,  dynasts  to  whom  he  must  bow  in  the  heaven  above 
and  in  the  earth  beneath.  I  need  not  stop  to  remark  how  much 
astrology  was  connected  with  worship,  how  much  powers  and 
demons  ruling  in  sun  and  stars  were  looked  upon  as  the  supports 
of  earthly  thrones.  I  apprehend  then  it  is  the  simplest  way  of 
construing  our  Lord's  words  to  understand  Him  as  saying  that 
these  powers  of  heaven  were  to  be  shaken,  that  the  thrones  of 
these  demons  and  demi-gods  were  to  totter.  Such  an  interpre- 
tation I  think  commends  itself  to  the  conscience  and  understand- 
ing as  one  demanding  no  sort  of  strain,  perfectly  in  accordance 
wilh  the   ordinary  language  of  those   to  whom   it  was  addressed, 


THE  PROPHECY  OF  THE  LAST  DAYS.  89 

according  also  with  the  facts  of  heathen  hfe  and  history,  involv- 
ing no  other  confusion  than  that  which  actually  existed  in  the 
minds  of  the  false  worshippers  between  the  visible  and  invisible, 
the  physical  and  spiritual — a  confusion  which  therefore  the 
words,  if  they  are  true,  ought  to  express.  Whether  or  no  the 
woras  m  this  sense  were  fulfilled,  we  shall  have  to  inquire  here- 
after ;  I  am  now  occupied  only  with  the  prophecy.  The  same 
remark  applies  to  the  next  verse  :  "  And  then  shall  appear  the 
sign  of  the  Son  of  Man  in  heaven  ;  and  then  shall  all  the  tribes 
of  the  earth  mourn,  and  they  shall  see  the  Son  of  Man  coming  in 
the  clouds  of  heaven  with  power  and  great  glory."  I  am  not  now 
to  say  what  the  sign  of  the  Son  of  Man  was,  nor  how  the  tribes 
of  the  earth  mourned  at  that  sign,  nor  how  they  saw  Him  coming 
in  the  clouds  of  heaven  ;  I  will  merely  say  that  the  words,  if 
taken  in  connection  w^ith  those  that  go  before,  must  intimate  a 
victory  of  the  Son  of  Man  over  those  powers  of  heaven  to  which 
men  had  been  doing  homage,  a  victory  which  should  be  felt  in 
some  very  striking  and  terrible  w^ay  by  the  tribes  of  the  earth,  a 
victory  which  should  have  some  obvious  and  visible  accompani- 
ments. It  must  moreover,  one  would  say,  be  the  victory  of 
Christ  as  a  living  person,  not  of  a  religion  or  a  doctrine  ;  'a  vic- 
tory which,  whether  it  was  understood  or  not  at  the  time  by  the 
"  tribes  "  which  it  caused  to  tremble,  would  be  understood  at 
once  by  those  who  had  passed  out  of  the  darkness  of  the  world 
and  saw  things  in  God's  light ;  would  be  understood  in  a  meas- 
ure by  some  on  earth;  would  leave  the  deepest  marks  of  itself 
in  the  world's  history — marks  which  \vouId  at  last  make  it  evi- 
dent that  the  greatest  and  most  memorable  of  all  crises  had  taken 
place.  Whatever  this  sign  and  this  appearance  of  |;he  Son  of 
Man  may  have  been,  they  must,  one  would  think,  answer  to  these 
conditions  in  order  that  they  may  correspond  to  the  words  which 
describe  them.  They  cannot  also  be  inconsistent  with  the  words 
uttered  just  before,  which  say  that  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man 
should  be  as  the  lightning  that  lighteneth  out  of  one  part  of 
heaven  and  shineth  even  to  the  other. 

The  next  words,  ''  And  He  shall  send  his  angels  with  a  great 


go  LECTURE    I. 

sound  of  a  trumpet,  and  they  shall  gather  together  His  elect 
from  the  four  winds,  from  one  end  of  heaven  to  the  other  ;  "  ex- 
actly correspond  to  the  description  in  the  seventh  chapter  of  the 
Apocalypse.  When  I  speak  of  that  book  I  shall  endeavor  to 
consider  their  meaning  carefully.  At  present  I  will  only  remark, 
that  so  far  as  the  context  can  determine  their  meaning,  they 
would  seem  to  be  most  closely  linked  to  the  desecration  and 
overthrow  of  the  temple.  More  exact  language  than  "  immedi- 
ately after  the  tribulation  of  those  days,"  which  governs  the 
whole  of  this  passage,  can  scarcely  be  imagined.  If  we  judge 
of  them  by  their  relation  to  the  Gospel  in  which  they  occur,  and 
to  the  other  two  Gospels,  we  shall  be  struck  with  the  suitable- 
ness of  such  words  to  the  tenor  of  John  the  Baptist's  first  proph- 
ecy, and  of  all  our  Lord's  prophecies  that  have  preceded  them. 
The  people  who  had  boasted  of  their  election,  who  had  said, 
"  We  have  Abraham  to  our  father,"  would  be  left  without  a  cap- 
ital or  a  temple,  the  great  witnesses  of  i^s  divine  meaning.  But 
the  purpose  of  the  election  would  stand  ;  God  would  raise  up 
children  to  Abraham  ;  He  would  show  why  He  had  called  the 
chosen  people  ;  a  deeper  society  and  kingdom  would  be  found 
to  be  hidden  beneath  theirs. 

For  how  does  our  Lord  continue  ?  ''  Now  learn  a  parable  of 
the  fig-tree  ;  When  his  branch  is  yet  tender,  and  putteth  forth 
leaves,  ye  know  that  summer  is  nigh  :  so  likewise  ye,  when  ye 
shall  see  all  these  things,  know  that  it  is  near,  even  at  the 
doors."  All  these  events,  in  which  one  sees  at  first  only  the  icy 
hand  of  winter  withering  and  destroying,  are  really  the  foretastes 
of  a  coming  summer ;  death  is  the  preparation  for  life.  Instead 
of  being  cast  down,  you  are  to  lift  up  your  heads  when  they  ap- 
pear;  it  is  of  redemption,  not  ruin,  that  they  speak.  The  regen- 
eration of  the  world — the  manifestation  of  that  kingdom  which 
your  fathers  died  expecting,  which  I  have  told  you  is  at  hand, 
which  I  have  come  to  reveal,  will  be  the  fruits  of  that  judgment 
which  will  not  leave  one  stone  of  this  goodly  building  upon  an- 
other. 

He  says  this,  and  then  He  adds,  "Verily  I  say  unto  you,  This 


THE  PROPHECY  OF  THE  LAST  DAYS.         9I 

generation  shall  not  pass  till  all  these  things  be  fulfilled.  Heav- 
en and  earth  shall  pass  away,  but  my  words  shall  not  pass  away." 
He  had  said  before,  "  immediately  after  the  tribulation."  He 
had  said  just  now,  "  when  ye  shall  see  all  these  things."  He 
says  now,  "  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  This  generation  shall  not 
pass  till  all  these  things  be  fulfilled."  Language  more  awful 
cannot  be  conceived.  I  do  not  claim  that  any  importance  or 
solemnity  shall  be  attached  to  it  by  those  who  think  that  the 
person  who  uttered  it  was  only  Matthew  the  publican,  or  that  it 
is  a  more  or  less  accurate  report  of  the  sayings  of  a  good  man 
who  might  be  deceived.  But  I  do  claim  that  those  who  think 
that  these  are  the  words  of  the  Son  of  God,  of  Him  who  spake 
as  never  man  spake,  those  who  dwell  earnestly  and  passionately 
on  the  inspiration  and  authority  of  the  record  which  contains 
them,  should  take  care  how  they  trifle  with  these,  "  Verily  I  say 
unto  you,"  and,  "  Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away."  Let 
them  observe  that  the  language  becomes  more  exact,  more  care- 
fully emphatic,  in  those  parts  of  the  discourse  which  they  sup- 
pose cannot  have  had  a  fulfilment  at  the  time  of  the  destruction 
of  the  Jewish  temple,  than  in  those  which  they  eagerly  assert, 
and  produce  passages  from  Josephus  to  show,  had  a  fulfilment 
at  that  time.  Let  them  mark  the  whole  sequence  of  the  dis- 
course, as  well  as  all  the  most  minute  points  and  phrases  in  it, 
and  then  ask  themselves  whether  they  can  be  satisfied  with  that 
explanation  of  the  word  "  generation,"  to  which  Mede  gave  cur- 
rency, and  which  has  been  adopted  in  slavish  deference  to  his 
authority,  or  in  eager  delight  that  any  escape  from  such  severe 
language  can  be  discovered.  Do  they  think  that  when  our  Lord 
said  that  the  temple  should  be  destroyed  He  only  meant  that  it 
should  be  destroyed  before  the  Jewish  race  ceased  to  exist  ?  Do 
they  think  that  he  did  not  intend  jzoza.  (generation)  to  bear  its 
ordinary  sense  at  all  in  the  minds  of  the  Apostles?  Were  they 
not  to  expect  that  the  city  would  be  compassed  with  Roman  ar- 
mies within  that  age  ?  Consider,  I  beseech  you,  that  it  is  a  very 
different  thing  to  maintain  that  a  prophecy  may  have  a  double 
or  treble  sense,  where  by  double  or  treble  you  mean  that  what  is 


92 


LECTURE    I. 


true  of  one  time  may  be  even  more  clearly  and  emphatically 
true  of  another,  just  as  ordinary  historians  have  remarked  that 
the  same  principles  swayed  the  conduct  of  Charlemagne  and  of 
Napoleon,  that  even  the  facts  of  the  history  repeat  themselves, 
and  that  the  laws  which  govern  those  facts  are  brought  out  more 
completely  in  the  latest  facts  than  in  the  earlier  ;  and  to  use 
words  in  a  double  sense,  where  by  "  double  "  we  mean  that  the 
signification  of  them  in  the  very  same  narrative  or  discourse  is 
changed,  so  that  it  is  at  the  pleasure  of  the  interpreter  to  make 
them  signify  one  thing  in  reference  to  one  part  of  the  subject 
and  another  in  reference  to  another.  To  say  that  a  prophet  not 
only  does,  but  that  he  must  transgress  the  limits  of  a  single 
event  when  he  lays  down  a  great  law  of  the  Divine  Mind,  is  to 
claim  for  him  that  very  insight  and  foresight  which  his  name  im- 
plies ;  to  say  that  he  palters  with  words  in  a  double  sense,  is 
nothing  less  than  to  call  him  a  false  prophet,  to  identify  him 
with  a  heathen  oracle.  If  Mede  and  his  followers  had  only  said, 
"  Heaven  and  earth  may  pa.is  away,  but  Christ's  words  cannot 
pass  away,"  those  words  cannot  have  exhausted  themselves  at 
the  time  of  the  destruction  of  the  temple  :  the  law  of  the  Divine 
Mind  which  was  fulfilled  in  that  act  must  be  eternal  because  He 
is  eternal  ;  we  are  living  under  His  government  as  they  were, 
therefore  what  came  to  pass  in  that  generation  must  be  a  guide 
and  text-book  for  subsequent  generations ; "  how  much  one 
would  have  honored  their  sentence,  how  thankful  one  would  have 
been  to  them  for  help  in  reading  the  future  by  the  light  of  the 
past !  But  when  they  say,  "  Our  Lord  did  not  intend  to  say  that 
all  things  should  come  to  pass  in  that  generation,  though  He 
used  these  very  words,  but  only  some  things,  leaving  us  at  liberty 
to  determine  which  belonged  to  that  time,  and  which  belonged 
to  ages  hence  ;"  all  security  in  the  reading  of  the  Divine  Word 
seems  to  be  lost ;  no  neologian  more  effectually  undermines  the 
authority  of  the  Evangelists,  nay,  of  our  Lord  Himself,  than 
these  honest  and  earnest  believers. 

IX.     "  But  of  that  day  and  hour  knoweth  no  man,  no,  not  the 
angels  of  heaven,  but  my  Father  only.     But  as  the  days   of  Noe 


THE  PROPHECY  OF  THE  LAST  DAYS.         '93 

were,  so  shall  also  the  coming  of  the   Son  of  Man  be.     For  as 
in  the  days  that  were  before  the  flood  they  were  eating  and 
drinking,   marrying   and   giving   in  marriage,  until  the  day  that 
Noe   entered  into  the   ark,  and  knew  not  until  the  flood   came, 
and  took  them  all  away  ;  so  shall  also  the  coming  of  the  Son  of 
man  be.     Then  shall  two  be  in  the  field  ;  the  one  shall  be  taken, 
and  the  other  left.     Two  women  shall  be   grinding  at  the   mill  ;. 
the  one  shall  be  taken,  and  the   other  left."     Immediately  after 
our  Lord  had  so  emphatically  declared,  "  All  these   things   shall 
come  to  pass  in  this  generation,"  He  adds,  "  But  of  that  day  and 
hour  knoweth  no  man,  no,   not  the  angels   of  heaven,  but  my 
-  Father   only."     The    Apostles    had    asked    when    these    things 
should  come  to  pass,  when  the  end  of  the  age   should  be,  when 
the  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man  should  be.     He  certainly  appears 
to   answer  very  distinctly,  in  various   and  yet  most  harmonious 
modes  of  expression.  "It  will  be  within  this  age,  within  the  or- 
dinary term  of  a  human  life,  within  the  period  to  which  the  lives 
of    some    of   you   will    actually  extend.     Some    of  you   may  be 
brought  before  kings  and  rulers,  and  may  be  put  to  death  before 
the  actual   critical  moment  arrives ;  but  all  of  you  will  be  wit- 
nesses to  events  which,  as  I  have  explained  to  you,  are  the  fore- 
runners and  warnings  of  it.     More   than  this  I  cannot  tell   you. 
The  day  and  the  hour  of  that  crisis  are  not  revealed.     Men  know 
them  not,  the  angels  know  them  not ;  only  the   Father  knows 
them.     Men  who  are  so  deeply  interested  in  the  event  will  have 
all  the  preparations  for  it  that  they  can  want.     The   inhabitants 
of  the  invisible  world,  who  are   no   less  interested  in  it,  will  un- 
derstand more  clearly  that  it  has  occurred,  and  what  is  the  mean- 
ino-  of  it.     But  the  first  must  understand  by  watching  and  waiting  ; 
by^'maintaining  an  attitude  of  spiritual  expectation,  not  by  guess- 
ing about  times  and  seasons  ;  the  other  will  not  need  or  wish  to 
form  such  guesses,  they  will  rest  in  the  assurance  that  the  past, 
,     the  present,  and  the  future,  are  in  the  hands  of  Him  who  is  per- 
fect goodness  and  truth,  and  who  will  establish  His  Son's  King- 
dom on  the  earth."     How  deeply  this  lesson  went  into  the  hearts 
of   the  disciples,  how  certain  they  were  that  the   coming  of   the 


94  *  LECTURE    I. 

Son  of  Man  was  to  be  in  their  generation,  3^et  how  careful  to 
warn  their  followers  against  asking  after  the  day  or  the  hour,  we 
shall  have  to  consider  hereafter.  Here  I  would  only  beg  you  to 
observe  how  our  Lord  strengthens  His  disciples'  conviction  that 
a  great  period  or  era  of  the  world's  history  was  coming  to  an 
end,  by  leading  them  to  compare  their  generation  with  the  one 
which  had  wound  up  another  earlier  period  of  it.  "  But  as  the 
days  of  Noe  were,  so  shall  also  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man 
be."  In  the  words  which  follow  it  is  surely  intimated  that  there 
would  be  precisely  the  same  security  and  indifference  about  the 
crisis  which  was  approaching  as  about  the  crisis  which  had  oc- 
curred so  long  before.  And  yet  it  would  be  just  as  that  was,  a 
crisis  of  destruction,  and  a  crisis  of  restoration,  one  which  would 
show  what  the  earth  is,  and  what  men  are  without  God,  one 
which  would  show  Him  forth  as  the  ruler  and  renewer  of  it.  All 
that  follows  is  accurately  and  wonderfully  descriptive  of  a  great 
judgment,  where  one  is  taken  and  another  left,  the  spectator 
knows  not  why  or  how,  only  he  feels  that  there  is  an  invisible 
power  at  work,  a  power  which  he  either  curses  because  it  seems 
to  him  purely  arbitrary  and  hostile  to  him,  or  blesses  because  he 
knows  it  to  be  righteous,  and  believes. that  its  purpose  is  to  set 
righteousness  in  the  earth.  It  is  the  description,  I  say,  of  a 
judgment ;  not  cf  a  sweeping,  sudden  destruction,  but  of  a 
searching,  penetrating  fire,  which  is  sent  to  try  men's  hearts  of 
what  sort  they  are.  All  this  is  perfectly  consistent  with  that  be- 
lief in  the  revelation  of  an  unseen  Lord  of  the  earth  who  should 
make  His  power  and  His  government  felt  in  the  hearts  of  men 
and  through  the  visible  world,  perfectly  consistent  with  the  ap- 
pearing of  the  Son  of  Man  in  the  glory  of  His  Father  and  of  the 
holy  angels  ;  but  surely  not  the  least  consistent  with  the  advent 
of  a  visible  prince  surrounded  with  the  tinsel  of  ordinary  out- 
ward royalty.  Such  an  advent  we  might  expect  would  be  most 
accurately  announced  as  to  the  day  and  the  hour  ;  the  visible 
tokens  of  it  would  be  the  important  and  decisive  ones  ;  the  se- 
cret witnesses  would  in  comparison  of  them  be  insignificant ;  the 
command  might  be,  "  expect  me,  prepare  for  me  ;  let  some  par- 


THE  PROPHECY  OF  THE  LAST  DAYS.         95 

ticular  portion  of  the  world  be  ready,  for  there  shall  I  show  my- 
self." But  it  would  not  be,  "Watch;  for  ye  know  not,  any 
more  than  the  people  about  you,  at  what  hour  your  Lord  doth 
come."' 

"  Watch,  therefore  :  for  ye  know  not  what  hour  your  Lord 
doth  come.  But  know  this,  that  if  the  goodman  of  the  house 
had  known  in  what  watch  the  thief  would  come,  he  would  have 
watched,  and  would  not  have  suffered  his  house  to  be  broken  up. 
Therefore  be  ye  also  ready :  for  in  such  an  hour  as  ye  think  not 
the  Son  of  Man  cometh.  Who  then  is  a  faithful  and  wise  ser- 
vant, whom  his  lord  hath  made  ruler  over  his  household,  to  give 
them  meat  in  due  season  ?  Blessed  is  that  servant,  whom  his 
lord  when  he  cometh  shall  find  so  doing.  Verily  I  say  unto  you, 
That  he  shall  make  him  ruler  over  all  his  goods.  But  and  if 
that  evil  servant  shall  say  in  his  heart,  My  lord  delayeth  his 
coming;  and  shall  begin  to  smite  his  fellow  servants,  and  to  eat 
and  drink  with  the  drunken  ;  the  lord  of  that  servant  shall  come 
in  a  day  when  he  looketh  not  for  him,  and  in  an  hour  that  he  is 
not  aware  of,  and  shall  cut  him  asunder,  and  appoint  him  his 
portion  with  the  hypocrites  :  there  shall  be  weeping  and  gnash- 
ing of  teeth."  I  am  anxious  to  press  a  remark  I  made  under 
the  last  section  before  I  conclude  my  notice  of  this  chapter,  be- 
cause I  am  well  aware  that  the  moral  obstacle  to  the  literal 
view  of  it  which  I  have  taken,  is  really  far  stronger  than  any 
other.  If  we  suppose  that  our  Lord  actually  meant  that  all 
these  things  would  come  in  that  generation,  what  has  the  chap- 
ter to  do  with  us  ?  What  promises,  warnings  does  it  contain 
which  we  have  not  a  right  to  set  aside  as  mere  arbitrary  applica- 
tions or  adaptations  of  His  words,  not  as  addressed  to  us  by  His 
own  lips?  My  answer  is,  I  conceive  the  promises,  warnings, 
commands  of  this  chapter,  will  be  immeasurably  more  weighty, 
more  binding,  more  awful  for  us,  if  we  believe  that  they  did 
meet,  not  one  of  them  but  all  of  them,  a  strict  accomplishment 
in  that  day.  For  then  we  shall  believe  that  the  kingdom  of  God 
has  actually  come  with  power,  that  it  has  come  to  us,  that  we  are 
living  under  the   shadow  of  it.     And  then  the   question,  "  how 


96  LECTURE    I. 

have  we  used  this  gift,  how  have  we  behaved  ourselves  as  sub- 
jects of  this  kingdom  ?  "  will  bring  before  us  not  the  vague  fancy 
of  some  future  judgment,  but  the  clear  distinct  apprehension  that 
we  must  be  judged,  a  steady  consideration  of  any  signs  which 
show  that  the  Judge  is  at  the  door,  a  direct  application  of  our 
Lord's  comparison  between  the  first  period  of  the  world  and  the 
second,  as  a  ground  of  judging  of  the  third  by  the  second.  If 
there  had  been  no  manifestation  of  the  Son  of  Man  .as  a  judge 
as  well  as  a  deliverer,  we  might  wiell  give  ourselves  up,  as  we  are 
so  apt  to  do,  to  mere  fancies  about  a  great  assize,  fancies  v;hich 
never  really  come  home  to  the  heart  at  all,  which  have  the  effect 
of  making  children  afraid  of  their  Father  in  Heaven,  and  keep- 
ing them  from  Him,  which  are  cast  aside  by  men  with  the  rattles 
of  infancy,  which  produce  a  certain  impression  through  the  lips 
of  eloquent  and  terrific  preachers  upon  weak  nerves  and  sin-sick 
consciences;  impressions  which  while  they  last  have  as  much 
evil  in  them  as  good,  and  which  pass  away,  often  leaving  the 
hollowest  infidelity  behind.  But  if  He  has  come  to  judgment  in 
the  most  real  actual  manner,  if  the  death  of.  a  whole  nation,  if 
the  birth  of  a  whole  Christendom,  were  the  proofs  and  are  the 
abiding  witnesses  of  that  judgment ;  if  it  was  a  judinnent  of  the 
most  mysterious,  invisible,  yet  real  kind,  going  to  the  roots  of 
society,  affecting  all  its  most  outward  relations,  meeting  the  indi- 
vidual conscience,  and  either  raising  it  or  leaving  it  in  a  deep 
abyss ;  if  the  Christian  Church  was  a  witness  to  the  world  that 
was  passing  away  of  what  it  was  meant  to  be  and  what  was  com- 
ing out  of  it,  and  might  become  a  feeble,  forgetful,  false  witness; 
then  the  voice  of  Christ  as  a  present  King,  a  present  Son  of 
God,  speaks  to  individuals,  nations,  churches,  now  ;  bids  them 
watch  lest  their  house  should  be  broken  through,  lest  the  invisi- 
ble world  should  be  closed  from  them,  through  surfeiting  and 
drunkenness,  through  party-spirit,  through  the  worship  of  idols 
outward  or  inward,  of  self  the  worst  of  all,  through  the  following 
of  false  prophets,  through  the  substitution  of  a  partial  Christ  for 
an  universal  one,  an  imaginary  king  for  a  real  king ;  and  so 
when  He   comes  to  His   higher   and   more  glorious   temple,  He 


THE    PASSOVER.  97 

should  find  it  full  of  them  who  sell  and  them  who  buy,  money- 
changers in  the  place  of  priests,  mammon  exalted  to  the  throne 
of  Jehovah;  and  He  should  decree  that  of  this  better  temple  too, 
thus  defiled  and  abominable,  not  one  stone  should  be  left  upon 
another  that  should  not  be  thrown  down.  I  have  anticipated 
something  of  what  I  shall  have  to  say  hereafter  ;  but  the  subject 
seemed  to  demand  even  a  more  solemn  treatment  than  those 
which  have  preceded  it,  especially  as  it  is  the  introduction  to  the 
history  of  the  Last  Supper  and  of  the  Passion. 

THE    PASSOVER. 

"  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  Jesus  had  finished  all  these  say- 
ings, he  said  unto  his  disciples,  Ye  know  that  after  two  days  is 
the  feast  of  the  passover,  and  the  Son  of  Mai*  is  betrayed  to  be 
crucified.  Then  assembled  together  the  chief  priests,  and  the 
scribes,  and  the  elders  of  the  people,  unto  the  palace  of  the  high 
priest,  who  was  called  Caiaphas,  and  consulted  that  they  might 
take  Jesus  by  subdety,  and  kill  him.  But  they  said,  Not  on  the 
feast-day,  lest  there  be  an  uproar  among  the  people."  The  two 
first  of  these  verses  belong  to  St.  Matthew ;  the  announcement 
of  the  consultation  of  the  high  priests  is  common  to  the  three 
Evangelists.  The  great  subject  which  is  brought  under  our  no- 
tice, both  by  our  Lord's  words  and  the  priest's,  is  the  passover. 
In  the  first  three  Evangelists  (we  may  find  afterwards  how  dif- 
ferent the  case  is  in  the  fourth,)  the  Jewish  festivals  do  not  oc- 
cupy any  prominent  place  in  the  other  part  of  the  narrative. 
The  scene  is  chiefly  laid  in  Galilee.  If  harmonists  have  at- 
tempted to  arrange  the  history  by  the  occurrence  of  passovers 
and  pentecosts,  we  may  be  sure  that  they  have  sought  help  else- 
M'here  than  in  the  three  stories  which  they  were  attempting  to 
compare  with  each  other.  The  purpose  of  the  three  Evangel- 
ists, it  would  seem,  is  to  fix  our  minds  upon  this  passover,  to  ex- 
hibit every  thing  as  leading  on  towards  it,  and  bearing  upon  it. 
He  enters  into  Jerusalem  shortly  before  it  is  to  occur ;  the  Jew- 
ish rulers  have  no  doubt  that  it  is  His  special  object  to  present 

7 


^8  LECTURE    I, 

Himself  at  that  time  to  the  crowds  of  people  who  were  gathered 
together  from  all  parts  of  the  empire,  as  the  Son  of  David,  their 
rightful  king.  Some  decisive  blow  must  be  struck  before  that 
time,  or  it  may  be  too  late.  And  yet  no  time  is  so'  dangerous  ; 
it  is  a  sacred  one  ;  it  is  evident  that  He  who  entered  into  Jeru- 
salem with  palm-branches  strewed  in  his  way,  is  liked  by  the 
people,,  has  a  body  of  devoted  disciples  ;  He  must  be  taken  by 
subtlety,  or  there  may  be  an  uproar.  Such  are  the  tlioughts 
simply  and  naturally  recorded  of  those  who  ruled  the  Sanhe- 
drim ;  the  Evangelists  would  have  us  notice  how  all  these 
thoughts  and  consultations  were  pointing  to  the  connection  be- 
tween the  passover,  which  was  the  commencement  of  the  Israel- 
itish  deliverance  and  commonwealth,  and  the  kingdom  which  had 
been  declared  to  be  at  hand. 

THE    BETRAYAL. 

I  omit  the  story  of  the  alabaster-box  of  ointment,  because  I  do 
not  venture  to  assume  the  identity  of  this  event  with  that  re- 
corded in  the  seventh  chapter  of  St.  Luke.  In  spite  of  the  coin- 
cidence in  the  name  of  the  host,  the  difficulties  in  such  a  suppo- 
sition are  very  great  indeed  ;  certainly  I  should  not  dare  to  sur- 
mount them  for  the  sake  of  bringing  out  another  common  point 
in  the  history,  nor  of  suj^plying  one  link  in  the  life  of  Judas  Is- 
cariot.  One  could  only  do  that  by  anticipating  the  narrative  in 
the  fourth  Gospel,  a  liberty  which  I  have  determined  not  in  any 
case  to  take.  I  pass  therefore  at  once  to  the  words  in  the  14th 
verse  :  "  Then  one  of  the  twelve,  called  Judas  Iscariot,  went 
unto  the  chief  priests,  and  said  unto  them.  What  will  ye  give  me, 
and  I  will  deliver  him  unto  you  ?  And  they  covenanted  with 
him  for  thirty  pieces  of  silver.  And  from  that  time  he  sought 
opportunity  to  betray  him."  St.  Mark's  narrative  is  even  more 
brief,  he  omits  the  amount  of  the  money.  St.  Luke's  is  a  little 
longer,  he  says  "  Tiien  entered  Satan  into  Judas  surnamed  Isca- 
riot, being  of  the  number  of  the  twelve."  I  need  not  dwell  upon 
the  absence  of  all  starts  and  exclamations  in  this  record  ;  that,  I 


THE    BETRAYAL.  99 

hope,  is  a  characteristic  which  we  have  become  sufficiently  aware 
of  ill  the  course  of  our  study  of  these  Gospels,  so  that  to  point 
it  out  is  a  kind  of  impertinence.  I  merely  allude  to  it  for  the 
purjDOse  of  showing  how  entirely  the  thought  of  the  personal 
friend  was  absorbed  in  the  acknowledgment  of  the  King  and  of 
the  Son  of  God,  even  at  the  time  when  the  most  remarkable  ii, 
stance  of  his  affection  and  familiarity  was  about  to  be  related. 
How  could  men  who  are  merely  speaking  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth, 
their  beloved  friend,  betrayed  by  one  of  their  own  circle,  avoid 
the  greatest  expressions  of  indignation  and  horror  ?  If  they  had 
only  imputed  to  that  friend  in  after  times  certain  celestial  attri- 
butes, how  would  that  have  hindered  such  utterances  ?  Would 
it  not  have  made  them  more  natural  and  inevitable  ?  What  but 
the  feeling  that  they  were  speaking  of  One  who  ,had  absolutely 
no  need  of  any  such  bursts  of  earthly  vehemence  or  rapture, 
about  whom  they  would  be  profane,  whose  history  they  were 
simply  to  bring  out  that  men  might  know  their  King  and  deliv- 
erer, to  the  revelation  of  whom  the  chief  priests  and  Judas  were 
themselves  mysteriously  contributing,  can  account  for  the  naked- 
ness and  seeming  coldness  of  the  narrative,  when  it  touches 
upon  an  event  which  entered  so  deeply  into  the  heart  of  Christ 
Himself,  and  the  experience  of  which  appears  to  have  formed  so 
deep  and  mysterious  a  part  of  His  Passion  ? 

THE    FEAST. 

"  Now  the  first  day  of  the  feast  of  unleavened  bread  the  disci- 
ples came  to  Jesus,  saying  unto  him.  Where  wilt  thou  that  we 
prepare  for  thee  to  eat  the  passover  ?  And  he  said.  Go  into  the 
city  to  such  a  man,  and  say  unto  him,  The  Master  saith.  My 
time  is  at  hand  ;  I  will  keep  the  passover  at  thy  house  with  my 
disciples.  And  the  disciples  did  as  Jesus  had  appointed  them  ; 
and  they  made  ready  the  passover.  Now  when  the  even  was 
come,  he  sat  down  with  the  twelve.  And  as  they  did  eat,  he 
said,  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  that  one  of  you  shall  betray  me. 
And  they  were  exceeding  sorrowful,  and  began  every  one  of 


lOO  LECTURE    I. 

them  to  say  unto  him,  Lord,  is  it  I  ?  And  lie  answered  and  said, 
He  that  dippeth  his  hand  with  me  in  the  dish,  the  same  shall 
betray  me.  The  Son  of  Man  goeth  as  it  is  written  of  Him  :  but 
\voe  unto  that  man  by  whom  the  Son  of  Man  is  betrayed  !  it  had 
been  good  for  that  man  if  he  had  not  been  born.  Then  Judas, 
which  betrayed  him,  answered  and  said,  Master,  is  it  I  ?  He 
said  unto  him.  Thou  hast  said."  When  one  contemplates  the 
Passover  as  a  great  national  festival,  binding  all  Israelites  to- 
gether, one  may  easily  forget  how  much  it  also  bore  of  a  family 
character.  No  one  can  read  carefully  the  words  of  the  first  in- 
stitution without  seeing  how  much  the  command,  that  each  man 
should  take  a  lamb  of  the  house  of  his  father,  belongs  to  the 
very  essence  of  the  institution,  or  how  much  this  blending  of  the 
domestic  with  the  civil  and  the  national  goes  through  the  whole 
life  and  history  of  the  chosen  people.  Every  great  painter  who 
has  ventured  to  take  the  Last  Supper  for  his  subject,  has  left 
the  impression  upon  the  mind  of  the  spectator  that  he  is  behold- 
ing a  family  met  together  with  one  at  the  head  of  it  who  holds 
all  its  members  together,  with  one  dark  form  in  the  midst  of  it 
which  has  broken  loose  from  Him  and  is  destroying  its  unity. 
This  impression  has  been  derived  from  the  Evangelists.  Noth- 
ing can  be  so  simply  and  directly  human  and  personal  as  the 
bitter  words,  "  One  of  you  shall  betray  me,"  and  the  question- 
ing which  the  words  produced,  "  Is  it  I  ?  "  Once  lose  the  im- 
pression of  the  reality  of  this  family  meeting  and  we  fail  to  see 
how  much  the  feast  in  this  upper  chamber  fulfilled  the  very  idea 
of  the  Old  Passover,  and  so  we  are  not  prepared  for  the  next 
step  in  the  story,  for  the  carrying  out  of  the  idea  of  the  Passover 
into  its  highest  meaning  and  power. 

THE    lord's    supper. 

"  And  as  they  were  eating,  Jesus  took  bread,  and  blessed  it, 
and  brake  it,  and  gave  it  to  the  disciples,  and  said.  Take,  eat ; 
this  is  my  body.  And  he  took  the  cup,  and  gave  thanks,  and 
gave  it  to  them,  saying.  Drink  ye  all  of  it ;  for  this  is  my  blood 


THE    LORD  S    SUPPER.  -  lOI 

of  the  new  testament,  which  is  shed  for  many  for  the  remission 
of  sins.  But  I  say  unto  you,  I  will  not  drink  henceforth  of  this 
fruit  of  the  vine,  until  that  day  when  I  drink  it  new  with  you  in 
my  Father's  kingdom.  And  when  they  had  sung  an  hymn,  they 
went  out  into  the  mount  of  Olives."  These  words,  with  the  cor- 
responding ones  in  Mark  xiv.  22d  to  26th  verses,  and  Luke  xxii. 
19th  and  20th  verses,  are  usually  said  to  record  the  institution 
of  the  Lord's  Supper.  This  narrative  is  closely  interwoven  with 
the  history  of^  the  Paschal  Feast.  The  bread  and  wine  were 
those  which  belonged  to  the  feast.  Why  is  it  then  that  Chris- 
tians have  felt  these  sentences  to  contain  the  solemnest  an- 
nouncement of  a  new  festival  which  was  to  be,  and  which  actually 
has  been,  the  bond  of  a  new  society,  having  no  national  or  geo- 
graphical limitations  ?  Has  this  notion  of  the  whole  Christian 
world  been  merely  a  dream  ?  How  comes  it  that  so  strange  a 
reality  has,  for  eighteen  centuries,  in  all  the  most  civilized  por- 
tions of  the  world,  corresponded  to  it  ? 

I  can  explain  this  fact  only  in  one  way  ;  those  who  object  to 
it  may  suggest  some  other.  If  beneath  the  Jewish  kingdom 
there  did  actually  lie  another  and  a  deeper  one,  if  its  national 
sacraments  contain  the  idea  of  some  more  real  sacrament 
grounded  upon  an  actual  relationship  between  the  Son  of  God 
and  human  creatures,  if  that  relationship  is  one  of  the  most  in- 
timate kind  which  language  can  express,  a  relationship  implying 
the  closest  communion  of  inward  life,  of  inward  love,  such  lan- 
guage as  our  Lord  uses,  however  profound,  would  be  exactly  what 
we  should  look  for.  The  connection  of  the  new  institution  and 
the  old  would  be  involved  in  the  nature  of  both ;  the  one  would 
succeed  the  other  as  soon  as  the  shell  could  no  longer  contain 
the  bird  that  was  within  it.  Supposing  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord 
to  be  indeed  a  family  kingdom  resting  upon  actual  union  to  a 
divine  father  and  a  divine  brother,  the  domestic  element  would 
be  even  more  important  to  the  new  sacrament  than  to  the  old. 
Supposing,  lastly,  the  Evangelists  to  be  thoroughly  impressed 
with  this  idea,  to  be  penetrated  by  it,  one  might  look  for  those 
few,  quiet,  unimpassioned  sentences  which  record   the  giving  of 


102  ,  LECTURE    I. 

the  bread  and  of  the  cup  in  remembrance  of  Him.  But  this  is 
precisely  what  all  the  previous  records  of  these  three  Evangel- 
ists have  been  saying  to  us.  They  have  been  setting  forth  a 
divine  kingdom,  and  that  kingdom  as  established  in  a  Son  of 
God.  The  institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper  therefore  is  in  per- 
fect agreement  with  every  step  of  our  previous  progress,  a  pre- 
paration for  all  that  is  to  come. 

THE    WARNING    TO    PETER. 

"  Then  saith  Jesus  unto  them,  All  ye  shall  be  offended  because 
of  me  this  night :  for  it  is  written,  I  will  smite  the  shepherd,  and 
the  sheep  of  the  flock  shall  be  scattered  abroad.  But  after  I  am 
risen  again,  I  will  go  before  you  into  Galilee.  Peter  answered 
and  said  unto  Him,  Though  all  men  shall  be  offended  because 
of  thee,  yet  will  I  never  be  offended.  Jesus  said  unto  him, 
Verily  I  say  unto  thee,  That  this  night,  before  the  cock  crow, 
thou  shalt  deny  me  thrice.  Peter  said  unto  him,  Though  I 
should  die  with  thee,  yet  will  I  not  deny  thee.  Likewise  also 
said  all  the  disciples."  The  three  Evangelists  agree  in  placing 
our  Lord's  warning  to  Peter,  "  the  cock  shall  not  crow  till  thou 
hast  denied  me  thrice,"  at  this  point.  St.  Matthew  and  St. 
Mark  connect  it  with  the  general  words,  "  all  ye  shall  be  offended 
because  of  me  this  night."  St.  Luke  enlarges  the  address  to 
Peter,  beginning  with  the  words,  ''  Simon,  Simon,  Satan  hath 
desired  to  have  thee  that  he  may  sift  thee  as  wheat."  No  one, 
I  think,  has  felt  any  surprise  at  the  introduction  of  these  w^ords 
immediately  after  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  be- 
fore the  Agony.  It  has  been  felt  that  they  stood  most  appro- 
priately there.  And  though  the  attempt  to  give  a  reason  for  any 
feeling  of  this  kind  is  often  abortive,  yet  there  is  assuredly  very 
much  plausibility  at  least  in  the  commonplace  that  Peter,  as  the 
most  affectionate  and  self-confident  of  the  disciples,  was  warned 
how  little  he  could  depend  upon  himself,  how  little  strong  per- 
sonal affection  would  avail  him  in  the  hour  of  trial.  It  is  but  an 
expansion  of  this  remark  to  say  that  Peter  was  taught  along  with 


THE    WARNING    TO    PETER.  IO3 

the  other  disciples,  that  the  feeling  of  family  union  which  their 
meeting  at  the  Passover  had  expressed  and  celebrated  was  quite 
insufficient  to  keep  them  together  or  to  retain  any  one  of  them 
in  his  allegiance,  that  unless  God  were  binding  them  by  a  close 
and  mighty  bond  to  Himself,  and  were  upholding  them  in  it, 
they  could  not  preserve  their  unity.  Peter  was  especially  re- 
minded that  unless  he  held  fast  the  confession,  "  Thou  art  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God,"  and  rested  on  Him  who  had 
revealed  that  truth  to  him,  he  would  certainly  deny  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  to  be  his  Master,  however  lively  and  energetic  his  at- 
tachment to  Him  in  that  character  might  be.  Taken  with  the 
context  of  Peter's  history,  it  is  difficult  to  deduce  any  other  moral 
from  his  acts  or  our  Lord's  words  than  this.  But  this  is  the  con- 
sistent carrying  out  of  the  principle  which  we  have  traced  every- 
where, that  the  divine  Sonship  and  royalty  of  Christ  are  pre- 
supposed in  all  His  acts  and  utterances,  are  testified  of  by  the 
sins  and  unbelief  as  well  as  by  the  faith  and  obedience  of  His 
disciples. 

THE   AGONY. 

"  Then  cometh  Jesus  with  them  unto  a  place  called  Gethse- 
mane,  and  saith  unto  the  disciples.  Sit  ye  here,  while  I  go  and 
pray  yonder.  And  He  took  with  Him  Peter  and  the  two  sons 
of  Zebedee,  and  began  to  be  sorrowful  and  very  heavy.  Then 
saith  He  unto  them,  My  soul  is  exceedingly  sorrowful,  even  unto 
death  :  tarry  ye  here,  and  watch  with  me.  And  He  went  a  little 
farther,  and  fell  on  His  face,  and  prayed,  saying,  O  my  Father, 
if  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me  :  nevertheless  not  as 
I  will,  but  as  thou  wilt.  And  he  cometh  unto  the  disciples,  and 
findeth  them  asleep,  and  said  unto  Peter,  What,  could  ye  not 
watch  with  me  one  hour  ?  Watch  and  pray,  that  ye  enter  not 
into  temptation  :  the  spirit  indeed  is  willing  but  the  flesh  is  weak. 
He  went  away  again  the  second  time,  and  prayed,  saying,  O  my 
Father,  if  this  cup  may  not  pass  away  from  me,  except  I  drink 
it,  thy  will  be  done.     And  he  came  and  found  them  asleep  again  : 


104  LECTURE    I. 

for  their  eyes  were  heavy.  And  He  left  them,  and  went  away 
again,  and  prayed  the  third  time,  saying  the  same  words.  Then 
Cometh  He  to  His  disciples,  and  saith  unto  them,  Sleep  on  now, 
and  take  your  rest :  behold,  the  hour  is  at  hand,  and  the  Son  of 
Man  is  betrayed  into  the  hands  of  sinners.  Rise,  let  us  be 
going  :  behold,  he  is  at  hand  that  doth  betray  me." 

Every  variation  in  the  story  of  the  Agony  is  deserving  of  the 
most  careful  observation  and  reflection.  One  part  of  the  de- 
scription in  St.  Luke  is  inseparably  connected  in  our  mind  with 
the  narrative,  nay,  has  almost  given  it  its  name.  Still,  on  the 
whole,  St.  Matthew  is  the  more  full  and  minute.  The  impres- 
sion of  anguish,  of  solitude,  of  one  craving  for  sympathy  and 
not  finding  it,  is  brought  out  perfectly  by  him,  and  the  repetition 
of  the  prayer  with  the  memorable  change  in  it  we  owe  especially 
to  him.  I  have  nothing  to  add  to  what  thousands  have  said  of 
it ;  and  it  is  after  all  what  has  not  been  said  of  it,  the  unuttered, 
unutterable  experience  of  human  beings  in  all  kinds  and  states 
of  suffering  for  eighteen  hundred  years,  which  has  brought  out 
its  meaning.  I  think  I  might  safely  leave  it  to  that  experience 
to  declare  whether  the  word  "Father"  has  not  been  felt  to  con- 
tain the  very  essence  of  the  sorrow  and  the  consolation,  whether 
if  that  were  withdrawn  the  whole  record  would  not  become  ut- 
terly incoherent,  pervaded  by  a  vague  horror  from  which  the 
heart  could  find  no  escape,  and  yet  to  which  it  could  give  no 
form.  The  intensity  of  the  sorrow  is  surely  in  this,  that  it  is 
filial  sorrow,  the  distinct  will  of  the  Son  coming  forth  as  if  it 
were  something  separate  and  alone,  yet  striving  in  the  agony  of 
prayer  to  submit  itself,  to  claim  its  perfect  essential  unity  with 
the  Fatherly  will.  Who  can  find  words  except  those  which  the 
Evangelists  give  even  to  indicate  this  conflict  and  this  sacrifice  ; 
a  sacrifice  which  was  complete  from  the  very  intenseness  of  the 
conflict  ?  The  words  must  be  paradoxical  and  contradictory 
which  we  use  to  denote  such  a  struggle  of  life  and  death.  Yet 
who  does  not  feel  that  the  truth  which  they  shadow  forth  lies  at 
the  very  root  of  all  the  feelings  and  sorrows  of  humanity,  and  of 
every  individual  man  ?     Who  does  not  feel  that  the  very  secret  of 


THE    AGONY. 


105 


the  power  and  life  of  the  Gospel  is  lying  there  ?  No  one  has 
ever  questioned  that  if  the  New  Testament  contains  more  than 
a  few  beautiful  moral  maxims,  if  it  really  touches  upon  the  deep- 
est root  of  man's  being,  the  story  of  the  Agony  is  the  most  living 
and  inward  part  of  it,  that  by  which  we  are  to  understand  the 
rest.  And  why  is  it  so  ?  Because  the  sonship  of  Christ  is  here 
more  distinctly  and  fully  revealed  than  even  in  the  Temptation. 
Why  is  it  so  ?  but  because  the  relation  of  Christ  to  all  human 
beings,  that  kingly  relation  which  we  have  traced  through  His 
different  acts  of  power  and  mercy,  is  here  brought  out  as  won- 
derfully. He  enters  into  the  deepest  experience  of  human  suffer- 
ings. He  enters  into  the  innermost  depth  of  that  struggle  of  the 
human  spirit  to  be  independent,  which  is  the  ground  of  all  its 
suffering  and  all  its  sin.  He  treads  that  wine-press  alone,  and 
there  is  none  with  Him.  But  He  comes  forth  with  the  dyed 
garments  of  the  Conqueror.  Again  and  again  one  feels  how 
miserable  these  attempts  at  commentary  and  elucidation  are. 
The  simple  narrative  contains  the  whole.  The  mind  of  the 
writer  was  so  penetrated  and  possessed  by  the  idea  of  the  divine 
Son  and  the  divine  King  that  he  could  utter  only  the  words,  or 
a  few  of  the  words,  by  which  the  Son  of  God  Himself  had  ex- 
pressed it ;  no  one  Evangelist  is  able  to  take  in  the  whole  mys 
tery  ;  each  gives  some  one  side  or  glimpse  of  it ;  their  differ- 
ences having,  no  doubt,  justified  themselves  to  the  hearts  and 
consciences  of  men  iu  different  stages  and  moods  of  suffering  ; 
the  entire  result  of  all  belonging  to  the  history  and  life  of  the 
Church  universal. 

the  betrayal  and  apprehension.     the  sanhedrim. 
Peter's  denial. 

"  And  while  He  yet  spake,  lo,  Judas,  one  of  the  twelve,  came, 
and  with  him  a  great  multitude  with  swords  and  staves,  from  the 
chief  priests  and  elders  of  the  people.  Now  he  that  betrayed 
Him  gave  them  a  sign,  saying.  Whomsoever  I  shall  kiss,  that 
same  is  He :  hold  Him  fast.     And  forthwith  he  came  to  Jesus, 


I06  LECTURE    I. 

and  said,  Hail,  Master;  and  kissed  Him.  And  Jesus  said  unto 
him,  Friend,  wherefore  art  thou  come  ?  Then  came  they,  and 
laid  hands  on  Jesus,  and  took  Him.  And,  behold,  one  of  them 
which  were  with  Jesus  stretched  out  his  hand,  and  drew  his 
sword,  and  struck  a  servant  of  the  high  priest,  and  smote  off  his 
ear.  Then  said  Jesus  unto  him,  Put  up  again  thy  sword  into  his 
place  :  for  all  they  that  take  the  sword  shall  perish  with  the 
sword.  Thinkest  thou  that  I  cannot  now  pray  to  my  Father, 
and  He  shall  presently  give  me  more  than  twelve  legions  of 
angels  ?  But  how  then  shall  the  scriptures  be  fulfilled,  that  thus 
it  must  be  ?  In  that  same  hour  said  Jesus  to  the  multitudes, 
Are  ye  come  out  as  against  a  thief  with  swords  and  staves  for 
to  take  me  ?  '  I  sat  daily  with  you  teaching  in  the  temple,  and 
ye  laid  no  hold  on  me.  But  all  this  was  done,  that  the  scriptures 
of  the  prophets  might  be  fulfilled.  Then  all  the  disciples  for- 
sook Him,  and  fled.  And  they  that  had  laid  hold  on  Jesus  led 
Him  away  to  Caiaphas  the  high  priest,  where  the  scribes  and 
elders  were  assembled.  But  Peter  followed  Him  afar  off  unto 
the  high  priest's  palace,  and  went  in,  and  sat  with  the  servants, 
to  see  the  end.  Now  the  chief  priests,  and  elders,  and  all  the 
council,  sought  false  witnesses  against  Jesus,  to  put  Him  to 
death  ;  but  found  none  ;  yea,  though  many  false  witnesses  came, 
yet  found  they  none.  At  the  last  came  two  false  witnesses.  And 
said.  This  fellow  said,  I  am  able  to  destroy  the  temple  of  God, 
and  to  build  it  in  three  days.  And  the  high  priest  arose,  and 
said  unto  Him,  Answerest  thou  nothing?  what  is  it  which  these 
witness  against  thee  ?  But  Jesus  held  his  peace.  And  the  high 
priest  answered  and  said  unto  Him,  I  adjure  thee  by  the  living 
God,  that  thou  tell  us  whether  thou  be  the  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God.  Jesus  saith  unto  him,  Thou  hast  said :  nevertheless  I  say 
unto  you.  Hereafter  shall  ye  see  the  Son  of  man  sitting  on  the 
right  hand  of  power,  and  coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven.  Then 
the  high  priest  rent  his  clothes,  saying,  He  had  spoken  blas- 
phemy ;  what  further  need  have  we  of  witnesses  ?  behold,  now 
ye  have  heard  His  blasphemy.  What  think  ye  ?  They  answered 
and  said,  He  is  guilty  of  death.     Then  did  they  spit  in  His  face. 


TPIE    BETRAYAL    AND    APPREHENSIONS,    ETC.  lO/ 

and  buffeted  Him  ;  and  others  smote  Him  with  the  pahns  of  their 
hands,  saying,  Prophesy  unto  us,  thou  Christ,  Who  is  he  that 
smote  thee  ?  Now  Peter  sat  without  in  the  palace  :  and  a  dam- 
sel came  unto  him,  saying,  Thou  also  wast  with  Jesus  of  Galilee. 
But  he  denied  before  them  all,  saying,  I  know  not  what  thou 
sayest.  And  when  he  was  gone  .out  into  the  porch,  another  maid 
saw  him,  and  said  unto  them  that  were  there,  This  fellow  was 
also  with  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  And  again  he  denied  with  an  oath, 
I  do  not  know  the  man.  And  after  a  while  came  unto  him  they 
that  stood  by,  and  said  to  Peter,  Surely  thou  also  art  one  of 
them  ;  for  thy  speech  bewrayeth  thee.  Then  began  he  to  curse 
and  to  swear,  saying  I  know  not  the  man.  And  immediately 
the  cock  crew.  And  Peter  remembered  the  word  of  Jesus,  which 
said  unto  him,  Before  the  cock  crow,  thou  shalt  deny  me  thrice. 
And  he  went  out,  and  wept  bitterly."  The  corresponding  pas- 
sages are  Mark  xiv.  43d  verse  to  the  end ;  Luke  xxii.  47th  verse 
to  the  end. 

The  chief  variations  are  in  the  account  of  the  act  of  violence 
to  the  servant  of  the  high  priest,  in  the  story  of  the  young  man 
introduced  by  St.  Mark,  and  in  his  account  of  the  double  cock 
crowing,  when  St.  Peter  was  denying  his  Lord.  St.  Luke  has 
placed  the  account  of  the  denial  before  the  examination  of  our 
Lord  by  the  high  priest.  In  the  main  the  narratives  correspond. 
,The  part  of  them  which  refers  to  the  betrayal  and  the  denial,  I 
pass  over,  because  I  have  already  alluded  to  both  in  speaking  of 
our  Lord's  prophecy  at  the  Paschal  Feast.  I  am  anxious  that 
the  reader's  mind  should  not  be  distracted  by  any  accessary  or 
subordinate  events  from  considering  that  which  was  the  object 
and  the  result  of  the  apprehension  ;  viz.  the  accusation  before 
the  Sanhedrim,  which  is  so  carefully  recorded  by  every  Evan- 
gelist. *•  I  adjure  thee  by  the  living  God  that  thou  tell  us  if 
thou  art  Christ  the  Son  of  God  ;  "  St.  Mark  says,  "  Again  the 
high  priest  asked  Him  and  said  unto  Him,  Art  thou  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  the  blessed  One  ?  "  St.  Luke  introduces  other  ques- 
tions, but  they  all  terminate  in  the  one,  "Art  thou  the  Son  of 
God  ?  "  The  answer  is  in  St.  Matthew,   "  Thou  hast  said  •  never- 


I08  LECTURE    I. 

theless  I  say  unto  you,  Hereafter  shall  ye  see  the  Son  of  Man 
sitting  on  the  right  hand  of  power  and  coming  in  the  clouds  of 
heaven  ; "  in  St.  Mark,  "  I  am  :  and  ye  shall  see  the  Son  of 
Man  sitting  on  the  right  hand  of  power,  and  coming  in  the  clouds 
of  heaven.-'  St.  Luke  had  introduced  these  words  already  with 
one  important  variation,  "  Hereafter  shall  the  Son  of  Man  sit 
on  the  right  hand  of  the  power  of  God."  But  they  said  all 
"  Art  thou  then  the  Son  of  God  ? "  and  He  said  to  them,  "  Ye 
say  that  I  am."  The  decision  is  nearly  the  same  in  all  three. 
St.  Luke  omits  the  rending  of  the  clothes,  but,  "  what  need  we 
any  further  witness  ? "  is  the  common  sentiment  of  the  high 
priest  and  the  Sanhedrim. 

I  have  dwelt  on  these  points  because  you  will  at  once  perceive 
how  important  they  are  in  reference  to  the  object  of  this  lecture. 
The  condemnation  of  our  Lord  by  the  Jewish  nation  turns,  no 
one  has  ever  disputed  it,  upon  the  blasphemy  of  His  pretending 
to  be  the  Son  of  God.  With  that  proclamation  the  history  be- 
gan, with  the  effects  and  proof  of  it  the  history  is  about  to  wind 
up.  But  the  all-important  question  of  the  high  priest  is  met  by 
an  answer  as  important,  as  much  belonging  to  the  essence  of 
the  whole  gospel.  He  who  is  the  Son  of  God  is  also  the  Son  of 
Man.  The  Son  of  God  is  about  to  be  condemned  to  death,  that 
the  Son  of  Man  may  sit  on  the  right  hand  of  the  power  on  high. 
So  one  part  of  the  assertion  which  the  gospels  have  been  making 
throughout  is  receiving  its  seal.  But  there  is  also  another. 
Another  title  was  claimed,  another  charge  is  to  be  brought. 
They  all  arose,  it  is  said,  and  led  Him  to  Pilate.  , 

CHRIST   THE    KING.       THE    ARRAIGNMENT    BEFORE    PILATE. 

"  When  the  morning  was  come,  all  the  chief  priests  and  elders 
of  the  people  took  counsel  against  Jesus  to  put  Him  to  death  : 
and  when  they  had  bound  Him,  they  led  Him  away,  and  deliv- 
ered Him  to  Pontius  Pilate  the  governor  .  .  .  And  Jesus  stood 
before  the  governor:  and  the  governor  asked  Him,  saying,  Art 
thou  the  King  of  the  Jews  ?    And  Jesus  said   unto   him.  Thou 


CHRIST    THE    KING.  IO9 

sa3'est.  And  when  He  was  accused  of  the  chief  priests  and 
elders,  He  answered  nothing.  Then  said  Pilate  unto  Him, 
Hearest  thou  not  how  many  things  they  witness  against  Thee  ? 
And  He  answered  him  to  never  a  word  ;  inasmuch  that  the  gov- 
ernor marvelled  greatly.  Now  at  that  feast  the  governor  was 
wont  to  release  unto  the  people  a  prisoner,  whom  they  would. 
And  they  had  then  a  notable  prisoner,  called  Barabbas.  There- 
fore when  they  were  gathered  together,  Pilate  said'  unto  them. 
Whom  will  ye  that  I  release  unto  you  ?  Barabbas,  or  Jesus 
which  is  called  Christ?  For  he  knew  that  for  envy  they  had  de- 
livered Him  . .  .  But  the  chief  priests  and  elders  persuaded  the 
multitude  that  they  should  ask  Barabbas,  and  destroy  Jesus. 
The  governor  answered  and  said  unto  them.  Whether  of  the 
twain  will  ye  that  I  release  unto  you  ?  They  said,  Barabbas. 
Pilate  saith  unto  them,  What  shall  I  do  then  with  Jesus  which  is 
called  Christ  ?  They  all  say  unto  him.  Let  Him  be  crucified. 
And  the  governor  said.  Why,  what  evil  hath  He  done  ?  But 
they  cried  out  the  more,  saying,  Let  Him  be  crucified.  When 
Pilate  saw  that  he  could  prevail  nothing,  but  that  rather  a  tumult 
was  made,  he  took  water,  and  washed  his  hands  before  the  mul- 
titude, saying,  I  am  innocent  of  the  blood  of  this  just  person  :  see 
ye  to  it.  Then  answered  all  the  people,  and  said,  His  blood  be 
on  us,  and  on  our  children.  Then  released  he  Barabbas  unto 
them  :  and  when  he  had  scourged  Jesus,  he  delivered  Him  to  be 
crucified.  Then  the  soldiers  of  the  governor  took  Jesus  into  the 
common  hall,  and  gathered  unto  Him  the  whole  band  of  soldiers. 
And  they  stripped  Him,  and  put  on  Him  a  scarlet  robe.  And 
when  they  had  platted  a  crown  of  thorns,  they  put  it  upon  His 
head,  and  a  reed  in  His  right  hand :  and  they  bowed  the  knee 
before  Plim,  and  mocked  Him,  saying,  Hail,  King  of  the  Jews  I 
And  they  spit  upon  Him,  and  took  the  reed,  and  smote  Him  on 
the  head.  And  after  that  they  had  mocked  Him,  they  took  the 
robe  off  from  Him,  and  put  His  own  raiment  on  Him,  and  led 
Him  away  to  crucify  Him." 

The  passages. J  have  omitted  in  Matthew  refer  to  the  death  of 
Judas  and  the  message  of  Pilate's  wife.     What  is  peculiar  to  St. 


no  LECTURE    I. 

Luke  is  the  whole  story  of  our  Lord's  being  sent  to  Herod.  That 
which  is  brought  out  in  all  the  three  narratives  is  the  fact  that 
Jesus  is  accused,  mocked,  and  condemned  in  His  character  of 
King.  Pilate  is  not  allowed  to  deal  with  the  question  in  any 
other  way  than  this  ;  he  takes  all  possible  means  to  show  his 
contempt  for  the  charge ;  his  insults,  as  well  as  those  which  St. 
Luke  records  of  Herod's,  are  Roman  jests  upon  the  Jewish 
nation,  partly  political,  for  the  purpose  of  showing  how  little  he 
feared  Jewish  insurrection,  partly  the  mere  gratification  of  a 
conqueror's  pride,  partly  merciful,  to  save  the  criminal  from 
punishment  by  making  him  contemptible.  There  can  be  no 
doubt,  I  conceive,  that  Barabbas,  though  a  brigand,  was  not 
merely  that,  but  was  one  of  those  brigands  who  had  gone  forth 
into  the  wilderness  in  some  sort  as  a  chieftain  and  a  Christ,  pre- 
tending a  divine  commission  to  emancipate  the  people.  The 
priests  probably  had  a  very  cordial  dislike  for  Barabbas  as  one 
of  those  insurgent  leaders  who  interfered  with  their  own  influ- 
ence over  the  people  even  far  more  than  they  shook  the  supre- 
macy of  Rome.  The  people  would  be  surprised  to  hear  them  urg- 
ing the  release  of  one  whose  death  had  seemed  certain,  they 
would  welcome  it  as  a  kind  of  liberal  concession,  and  w-ould  be 
easily  persuaded  to  the  alternative  of  leaving  the  other  victim  to 
his  fate.  What  the  chief  priests  in  fact  said  and  felt  was,  "  this 
is  the  more  dangerous  pretender  of  the  two,  though  He  may 
come  with  less  violence,  He  is  the  real  underminer  of  the  throne 
of  the  Caesars."  No  doubt  their  thoughts  were  very  mixed. 
Partly  they  really  conceived  Him  a  blasphemer,  partly  they 
hated  Him  for  His  denunciation  of  themselves.  They  were  in- 
sincere in  pretending  any  love  for  Roman  ascendancy;  yet  they 
believed  it  w^as  safer  for  the  nation  and  themselves  than  what 
might  come  if  it  were  broken  up.  They  half  thought  our  Lord 
a  mere  impostor,  they  half  suspected  that  there  dw^elt  some  mys- 
terious royalty  in  Him.  They  could  therefore  easily  justify  their 
acts  to  themselves;  there  was  nothing  in  their  accusations  which 
was  in  their  minds  directly  false.  The  inwar^  spiritual  false- 
hood is  what  the  Evangelists   impute   to   them  ;  their  acts  they 


THE    CRUCIFIXION.  I  I  I 

look  upon  as  expressing  and  bringing  out  the  most  precious  and 
living  of  all  truths,  Pilate  they,  look  upon  as  contributing  his 
own  Gentile  testimony  to  that  truth,  for  this  was  the  inscription 
which  he  put  upon  the  cross  in  letters  of  Greek  and  Latin  and 
Hebrew,  "  This  is  Jesus  the  King  of  the  Jews." 

THE    CRUCIFIXION. 

"And  as  they  came  out,  they  found  a  man  of  Cyrene,  Simon 
by  name:  him  they  compelled  to  bear  his  cross.  And  when 
they  were  come  unto  a  place  called  Golgotha,  that  is  to  say,  a 
place  of  a  skull,  they  gave  him  vinegar  to  drink  mingled  with 
gall  :  and  when  he  had  tasted  thereof,  he  would  not  drink.  And 
they  crucified  him,  and  parted  his  garments,  casting  lots :  that  it 
might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  by  the  prophet.  They  parted 
my  garments  among  them,  and  upon  my  vesture  did  they  cast 
lots.  And  sitting  down  they  watched  him  there  ;  and  set  up  over 
his  head  his  accusation  written.  This  is  Jesus  the  King  of  the 
Jews.  Then  were  there  two  thieves  crucified  with  him,  one  on 
the  right  hand,  and  another  on  the  left.  And  they  that  passed 
by  reviled  him,  wagging  their  heads,  and  saying,  Thou  that  de- 
stroyest  the  temple,  and  buildest  it  in  three  days,  save  thyself. 
If  thou  be  the  Son  of  God,  come  down  from  the  cross.  Like- 
wise also,  the  chief  priests  mocking  him,  with  the  scribes  and 
elders,  said,  He  saved  others;  himself  he  cannot  save.  If  he 
be  the  King  of  Israel,  let  him  now  come  down  from  the  cross, 
and  we  will  believe  him.  He  trusted  in  God  ;  let  him  deliver 
him  now,  if  he  will  have  him  :  for  he  said  I  am  the  Son  of  God. 
The  thieves  also,  which  were  crucified  with  him,  cast  the  same 
in  his  teeth.  Now  from  the  sixth  hour  there  was  darkness  over 
all  the  land  until  the  ninth  hour.  And  about  the  ninth  hour 
Jesus  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  saying,  Eli^  Eli,  la?na  sabachthanil 
that  is  to  say.  My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  ? 
Some  of  them  that  stood  there,  when  they  heard  that,  said,  Ihis 
man  called  for  Elias.  And  straightway  one  of  them  ran,  and 
took  a  spunge,  and  filled  it  with  vinegar,  and  put  it  on   a  reed, 


I  12  LECTURE    I. 

and  gave  him  to  drink.  The  rest  said,  Let  be,  let  us  see  whether 
Elias  will  come  to  save  him.  Jesus,  when  he  had  cried  again 
with  a  loud  voice,  yielded  up  the  ghost.  And,  behold,  the  veil 
of  the  temple  was  rent  in  twain  from  the  top  to  the  bottom  ;  and 
the  earth  did  quake,  and  the  rocks  rent ;  and  the  graves  were 
opened  ;  and  many  bodies  of  the  saints  which  slept  arose,  and 
came  out  of  the  graves  after  his  resurrection,  and  went  into  the 
holy  city,  and  appeared  unto  many.  Now  when  the  centurion, 
and  they  that  were  with  him,  watching  Jesus,  saw  the  earthquake, 
and  those  things  that  were  done,  they  feared  greatly,  saying, 
Truly  this  was  the  Son  of  God.  And  many  women  were  there 
beholding  afar  off,  which  followed  Jesus  from  Galilee,  minister- 
ing unto  him."  The  parallel  passage  in  St.  Mark  is  the  15th 
chapter,  21st  to  41st  verses  ;  that  in  St.  Luke  is  the  23d  chapter, 
verses  26  to  49. 

I  have  anticipated  this  record  in  my  last  words.  There  are 
few  which  I  shall  add  to  them.  It  will  be  seen  that  there  are 
differences  in  these  reports ;  the  story  of  the  thief  perhaps  con- 
tains the  most  memorable  to  be  found  in  the  Gospels.  What 
is  it  which  is  the  same  ?  Would  not  every  one  say  ;  The  in- 
scription "  This  is  the  King  of  the  Jews,"  and  the  cry  of 
"  Father,"  whether  it  be,  "  forgive  them,"  "  why  hast  Thou 
forsaken  me?"  or,  "into  my  hands  I  commend  my  spirit",? 
Does  not  the  essence  of  the  narrative  lie  in  these  ?  Is  not  the 
mystery  of  the  cross  in  them .?  Shall  we  ever  preach  the  cross 
or  glory  in  it  as  the  Apostles  did — shall  we  ever  understand  the 
meaning  and  the  coherency  of  the  Evangelists  and  of  all  the 
Scriptures,  till  we  see  in  it  the  revelation  of  Jesus  the  Son  of  God 
and  the  King  of  Men  ? 

THE   BURIAL. 

"When  the  even  was  come,  there  came  a  rich  man  of  Arima- 
thaea,  named  Joseph,  who  also  himself  was  Jesus'  disciple  :  he 
went  to  Pilate,  and  begged  the  body  of  Jesus.  Then  Pilate 
commanded  the  body  to  be  delivered.     And  when  Joseph  had 


THE    RESURRECTION. 


113 


taken  the  body,  he  wrapped  it  in  a  clean  linen  cloth,  and  laid  it 
in  his  own  new  tomb,  which  he  had  hewn  out  in  the  rock  :  and 
he  rolled  a  great  stone  to  the  door  of  the  sepulchre,  and  depart- 
ed. And  there  was  Mary  Magdalene,  and  the  other  Mary,  sit- 
ting over  against  the  sepulchre."  St.  Mark's  record  of  this 
event  is  in  the  15th  chapter,  42d  to  47th  verses  ;  St.  Luke's,  in 
the  23d  chapter,  50th  to  56th  verses. 

Whatever  import  we  give  to  the  words  "  It  is  finished,"  the 
Evangelist  clearly  do  not  understand  them  as  intimating  that 
the  lowest  humiliation  had  been  reached,  that  the  history  of 
Christ's  acts  is  at  an  end.  The  placing  the  body  in  the  tomb 
by  him  who  waited  for  the  Kingdom  of  God,  is  in  their  minds  a 
necessary  part  of  the  story  ;  to  be  told  quickly,  like  all  the  rest, 
with  no  pomp  of  words  ;  still  a  fact  important  in  itself,  and  a 
necessary  step  to  that  which  will  be  recorded  next.  The  quiet 
entombing  is  noticed  as  carefully  as  the  violent  death  ;  the  honor 
which  is  paid  to  the  body  as  much  as  the  suffering  it  has  under- 
gone. If  it  is  the  body  merely  of  a  departed  and  beloved  friend, 
we  should  hear  how  all  laws  and  duties  were  broken  through 
and  dissolved  by  the  grief  over  it ;  if  it  is  the  body  of  a  Son  of 
God  and  King  of  Men,  it  may  rest  through  the  Sabbath-day;  the 
tomb  in  the  rock  is  a  sign  that  the  light  of  the  world,  though  it 
seems  to  be  quenched,  is  only  hidden. 


THE    RESURRECTION. 


The  28th  chapter  of  St.  Matthew,  the  i6th  of  St.  Mark,  the 
24th  of  St.  Luke,  contain  this  history.  What  is  the  impression 
which  it  leaves  upon  every  one  who  reads  it  ?  Surely  this :  that 
the  Evangelists  looked  upon  the  Resurrection  as  the  natural  and 
inevitable  sequel  of  their  history.  No  pains  are  taken  to  show 
how  an  event  so  strange  and  unparalleled  could  take  place  ;  no 
pains  to  bring  any  weight  of  testimony  in  support  of  it.  The 
incredulity  of  the  disciples  is  recorded  with  blame  ;  their  won- 
der and  joy  without  comment.  St.  Matthew  is  very  brief  in  his 
narrative.     Part  of  it  is  taken  up   with   explaining  the   arrange- 

8 


114  LECTURE    I. 

ment  between  the  priests  and  the  soldiers.  St.  Mark  speaks  of 
our  Lord's  upbraiding  the  disciples  with  their  hardness  of  heart  : 
He  asks  in  St.  Luke,  "ought  not  Christ  to  have  sujffered  these 
things,  and  to  enter  into  His  glory  ?  "  The  assumption  is  that 
another  issue,  if  you  take  the  premises  of  the  story,  would  be  in- 
credible ;  that  this  was  the  exact  fulfilment  of  the  Divine  order, 
the  victory  over  irregularity  and  disorder.  It  was  not  possible 
that  He  should  be  holden  of  death — not  possible  if  He  was  the 
Son  of  God  and  the  King  of  Men,  not  possible  if  His  baptism, 
His  temptation.  His  miracles,  "^is  parables,  His  whole  life,  were 
what  the  three  Evangelists  declare  them  to  have  been. 

The  narrative  of  the  Resurrection  belongs  to  the  three  Evan- 
gelists ;  that  of  the  Ascension  belongs  only  to  two  of  them. 
Here,  then,  is  the  point  at  which  I  commence  my  inquiry  into 
the  peculiarities  of  those  documents,  the  common  ground  and 
meaning  of  which  I  have  hitherto  been  endeavoring  to  ascertain. 


LECTURE  I. 


PART  II. 

DIFFERENCES  OF  THE  EVANGELISTS. 

• 
It  is  the  common  belief  respecting  the  Evangelists  that  the 

Spirit  of  God  brought  the  facts  of  our  Lord's  life  to  their  remem- 
brance. The}^  might  have  seen  them  themselves,  or  heard  of 
them  from  others,  but  they  did  not  understand  them  merely  be- 
cause they  saw  them  or  heard  of  them.  They  required  some 
light  from  above  to  tell  them  what  the  facts  meant,  to  bring 
them  into  harmony.  Till  they  had  this  light  they  were  not  com- 
petent to  record  them. 

This,  I  say,  is  our  common  belief.  With  it  we  have  connected 
an  opinion,  derived  from  external  sources  or  from  passages  of 
the  Scripture,  that  each  of  the  Evangelists  was  more  or  less  inti- 
mately connected  with  one  of  the  leading  Apostles.  No  one  has 
doubted  that  St.  Luke  was  the  companion  of  St.  Paul.  Common 
tradition,  supporting  itself  by  texts  which  have  very  considera- 
ble weig^ht,  connects  St.  Mark  with  St.  Peter.  We  have  not  been 
wont  formally  to  connect  St.  Matthew  with  the  writer  of  any  of 
the  Epistles.  But  ancient  and  modern  critics  have  agreed  in 
considering  him  especially  the  writer  for  the  Hebrew  part  of  the 
Church.  Implicitly,  therefore,  he  is  associated  in  our  minds 
with  St.  James,  the  presiding  Apostle  of  the  Jerusalem  Church, 
emphatically  the  Christian  Jew. 

I  do  not  think  people  have  asked  themselves  very  distinctly 
how  they  connect  these   two  sets   of  facts   together.     They  say 


Il6  LECTURE    1.       PART    II. 

vaguely  that  the  Evangelists  were  inspired  to  report  certain 
events.  Since  they  find  these  events  differently  recorded,  they 
suppose  that  the  inspiration  led  to  these  differences  ;  since  some 
events  are  omitted  by  one,  and  recorded  by  another,  they  sup- 
pose that  thi^  must  be  owing  to  the  same  cause.  But  they  are 
so  little  in  the  habit  of  regarding  these  events  as  making  up  one 
whole,  as  having  one  distinct  purpose  or  object,  that  they  fail  to 
explain  to  others,  and,  I  think,  to  themselves,  what  they  mean 
either  by  the  human  helps  of  eyesight  or  testimony,  which  the 
writers  availed  themselves  of,  or  the  divine  guidance  and  super- 
intendence which  was  over  them. 

But  is  it  hopeless  to  arrive  at  some  reconciliation  of  these  two 
views  ?  Is  any  book  worth  any  thing  to  any  human  being  unless 
there  is  some  idea  or  principle  in  it  which  binds  the  different 
facts  in  it  together  ?  Can  a  person  sit  down  to  write  a  book 
which  shall  last  for  any  time,  and  convey  a  living  impression  to 
a  number  of  minds,  unless  there  is  such  an  idea  or  purpose 
within  it?  Supposing  it  to  be  within  it,  will  not  every  part  of 
his  record  be  penetrated  by  it .''  Will  he  not  see  every  fact  in 
the  light  of  it  ?  And,  so  far  as  he  imparts  an  impression  to  us, 
will  he  not  do  so  by  making  us  see  every  fact  in  the  same  light  ? 

Were  this  admitted,  might  we  not  be  able  better  to  under- 
stand what  is  meant  by  the  Spirit  bringing  to  remembrance 
events  which  had  been  before  presented  to  the  senses  or  known 
by  testimony  ?  Would  not  the  operation  indicated  by  such  lan- 
guage be  precisely  this,  that  all  that  was  previously  scattered, 
disjointed,  incoherent  in  the  mind,  became  a  living  harmonious 
whole  ;  each  distinct  portion  brought  out  in  its  proper  propor- 
tions by  the  light  which  is  diffused  over  all  ?  Might  we  not  in 
that  way  be  able  to  understand  why,  amidst  the  number  of  gos- 
pels which  we  know  to  have  existed  in  the  early  Church,  and 
which  St.  Luke  intimates  to  have  been  composed  in  his  time, 
some  should  have  sunk  into  immediate  obscurity,  some  should 
have  floated  for  a  little  while  and  perished  at  last,  because  they 
were  of  no  living  coherency,  because  the  events  which  they  re- 
corded, even  if  they  happened  to  be  true,  wanted  the  sure  divine 


DIFFERENCES    OF    THE    EVANGELISTS.  11/ 

impress,  were  felt  at  once  not  to  contain  a  divine  history,  but 
merely  the  loose  fragments  of  one. 

In  this  way  we   might  understand,  I  think,  how  the   idea  of  a    | 
Son  of  God  would  be  stamped  upon  all  the   true  gospels,  while 
those  which  were  not  true   would  be   endeavoring,  by  various 
wonderful  narratives  and  startling  prodigies,  to   convey  the   no- 
tion that  they  had  some  One   very  great  to.  tell  of,  though,  with 
all  their  efforts,  they  could  never  succeed  in   really  presenting 
Him  to  the  heart  and  conscience  of  their  readers.     But  suppos- 
ing this  fundamental  idea  were  given  as   the  common  test  and 
sign  of  all  true  Evangelists,  will  there  have  been  no  special  as-  >w 
pects  of  that  idea  which  presented  itself  to  each   one  of  them  ?  / 
Would  it  have  been  possible  that  one  narrative  could  convey  the 
whole  of  such  a  truth  as  this  ?     Here  I  apprehend  the   opportu- 
nity occurs  for  considering  those  relations   of  the  Evangelists 
with  different  Apostles  which  we  have   all,  in  some  measure, 
taken  for  granted. 

St.  Matthew,  as  we  have  seen,  at  least  as  much  as  any  of  the 
three  Evangelists,  sets  before  us  a  Son  of  God  in  his  narrative. 
But  under  what  aspect  ?  I  will  not  now  say  any  thing  about  the 
special  work  of  St.  James,  at  which  I  have  hinted,  because  I 
shall  have  hereafter  to  examine  the  Epistle  of  St.  James,  and 
see  what  it  tells  us  of  his  meaning  and  object.  I  will  assume 
only  that  St.  Matthew's  Gospel  is  what  all  have  called  it— the 
Hebrew  Gospel.  If  so,  I  think  we  might  expect  to  find  that  the 
prevailing  idea  of  St.  Matthew's  mind  was  that  the  revelation  of 
the  Son  of  God  is  the  fulfilment  of  that  revelation  which  we 
have  in  the  Old  Testament,  that  the  new  covenant  is  necessary 
to  complete  and  substantiate  the  Old,  that  the  God  of  Abraham 
must  be  a  Father,  that  the  kingdom  of  Abraham  must  be  a  fath- 
erly kingdom. 

I  shall  have  to  speak  of  St.  Peter  hereafter  ;  I  wdll  not,  there- 
fore, enter  now  into  the  evidence  which  his  Epistle  furnishes 
respecting  the  pervading  idea  or  purpose  of  his  mind.  I  will 
merely  recall  his  own  confession,  as  given  by  St.  Matthew, 
"  Thou  art   the  Christ,  the   Son  of  the  living  God."     I  turn  to 


Il8  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

St.  Mark,  and  find  his  first  words,  "  The  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ 
the  Son  of  God."  I  should  expect  to  find  that  the  object  of  St. 
Mark's  Gospel  was,  emphatically,  to  bring  out  Christ  in  His  own 
person  and  His  own  acts,  as  the  head  and  founder  of  a  kingdom 
and  as  an  object  of  faith. 

I  shall  have  hereafter  to  go  into  the  investigation  of  St.  Paul's 
Epistles,  and  his  position  in  the  Church.  I  will  only  assume 
now  that  he  was  the  teacher  of  the  Gentiles,  and  that  he  looked 
upon  the  new  dispensation,  not  merely  as  completing  the  old, 
but  as  having  a  foundation  deeper  than  the  old,  so  that  Jewish 
law,  and  the  whole  Jewish  economy,  were  grounded  upon  the 
revelation  of  Christ,  rather  than  it  upon  them.  Now  I  should 
certainly  expect  St.  Luke's  Gospel  to  embody  this  idea,  to  set 
forth  the  Son  of  God  as  a  giver  of  the  Spirit,  and  the  founder 
of  a  spiritual  kingdom  which  had  an  older  and  deeper  root  than 
Judaism  itself. 

Whether  these  expectations  answer  to  the  actual  records 
which  we  find  in  these  three  Evangelists  it  will  now  be  our  busi- 
ness, as  briefly  as  we  can,  to  consider. 


ST.   MATTHEW. 


CHAPTER  I. 


St.  Matthew's  Gospel  opens  with  the  words,  "  The  book  of 
the  generation  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  David,  the  Son  of 
Abraham."  It  gives  us  a  genealogy  commencing  from  Abra- 
ham, reaching  to  Joseph  the  husband  of  Mary.  It  divides  Jew- 
ish history  into  three  periods  of  fourteen  generations  each.  It 
tells  us  that  Joseph  was  espoused  to  Mary,  and  that  before  they 
came  together  she  was  found  with  child  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  It 
tells  us  that  herein  were  fulfilled  the  words,  "  A  virgin  shall  con- 
ceive and  bear  a  Son,  and  they  shall  call  His  name  Emmanuel." 
It  tells  us  that  the  child  when  he  was  brought  forth  was  called 
Jesus. 

There  are  here  some  obvious  difficulties,  which  all  readers 
have  felt,  and  which  cannot  be  evaded.  I  will  enumerate  them. 
Jesus  Christ  is  said  to  be  the  Son  of  David  and  the  Son  of  Abra- 
ham. So  far  we  have  the  announcement  which  might  be  expect- 
ed from  a  Jew,  who  believed  that  the  Messiah  was  to  be  of  the 
race  of  the  great  patriarch  and  the  great  king.  But  how  is  He 
proved  to  be  so  ?  Joseph  is  shown  to  be  of  that  race.  But  Jo- 
seph is  declared  not  to  be  His  father.  Secondly,  What  has  the 
arrangement  of  Jewish  history  into  periods  to  do  with  the  gene- 
alogy or  with  the  account  of  the  Conception  ?  Thirdly,  supposing 
the  miraculous  Conception  admitted,  how  was  it  a  fulfilment  of 
the  words  of  Isaiah,  who  evidently  speaks  of  a  child  then  about 
to  be  born,  who  should  not  be  able  to  cry,  "  My  father  or  my 
mother,"  before  the  two  kings  who  were  conspiring  against  Ahaz 
should  have  been  put  down. 


120  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

It  does  not  seem  to  me  that  we  escape  from  these  difficulties 
by  supposing  the  first  two  chapters  of  St.  Matthew  not  to  be  a 
genuine  part  of  his  Gospel.  For  we  should  still  have  to  explain 
how  a  story  so  apparently  inconsistent  was  put  together.  Nor 
do  I  see  how  we  are  helped  by  supposing  him  to  be  an  Ebionite 
Christian.  For  though  a  portion  of  the  Ebionites  believed  in 
the  miraculous  Conception,  it  does  not  seem  to  have  been  a 
characteristic  tenet  of  theirs,  and  the  inconsistency  will  remain 
the  same.  Or,  if  we  suppose  it  to  be  portions  of  two  narratives, 
put  together  by  some  later  compiler,  it  is  quite  unintelligible 
why  he  did  not  omit  the  genealogy,  or  try  to  accommodate  it  to 
the  account  of  the  conception. 

Suppose,  on  the  other  hand,  that  St.  Matthew  set  out  from  the 
belief  which  I  have  shown  to  be  common  to  all  the  Evangelists, 
that  Jesus  was  the  eternal  Son  of  God,  would  it  seem  to  him 
strange  that  His  incarnation  should  take  place  in  what  we  call  a 
miraculous  way  ?  Might  it  not  seem  to  him,  if  I  may  use  the 
expression,  the  most  natural  way  in  which  such  a  Person  could 
be  brought  into  this  world  ?  Might  he  not  look  upon  this  birth 
as  rather  explaining  the  law  of  other  births  than  being  merely  an 
exception  from  them  }  And  if  he  had  this  thought,  would  not 
all  Jewish  history  seem  to  confirm  it  to  him  t  Take,  for  in- 
stance, the  first  in  his  genealogy.  The  birth  of  Isaac  surely 
intimated  to  Abraham,  and  through  Abraham  to  the  Jewish  na- 
tion,^ that  a  child  is  the  gift  of  God,  that  where  there  is  a  human 
father,  it  is  still  to  be  attributed  to  Him  as  its  author.  With 
this  first  example  to  start  from,  must  not  the  whole  line  of  Jew- 
ish children  have  been  regarded  as  witnesses  of  a  mysterious 
divine  paternity  over  the  nation  and  over  its  different  members  ? 
Did  not  every  page  of  the  prophets  suggest  the  thought  that  hu- 
man relations  had  a  divine  counterpart,  that  they  were  grounded 
upon  a  relation  which  was  most  real,  but  which  had  not  yet  been 
manifested .?  If  this  were  his  feeling,  would  it  be  strange  that 
he  should  deduce  his  genealogy  to  Joseph  instead  of  to  Mary .? 
Would  not  the  sudden  interruption  of  the  history  just  at  that 
point  be   the   clearest  explanation  of   the  previous  sequence,  de- 


ST.    MATTHEW.  121 

noting  that  now  the  meaning  of  it  was  declared,  that  the  ground 
of  these  human  relations  was  brought  to  light  ?  The  words, 
"  Son  of  David,  Son  of  Abraham,"  would  then  stand  in  close 
and  intelligible  connection  with  the  latter  part  of  the  story  ;  they 
would  intimate  that  the  Son  of  God  was  that -heir  of  David's 
throne  of  whom  all  the  previous  kings  had  been  testifying,  under 
whom  they  had  been  reigning  ;  that  the  covenant  with  Abraham 
was  accomplished  in  Him,  for  that  in  Him  all  the  families  of  the 
earth  were  to  be  blessed. 

Upon  this  hypothesis  we  might  easily  explain  why  Matthew 
should  dwell,  though  but  for  a  moment,  upon  the  successive  pe- 
riods of  Jewish  history.  He  who  had  come  to  gather  up  the 
history  of  the  people,  He  who  was  to  be  the  centre  of  the  differ- 
ent ages,  is  about  to  present  Himself  to  us.  A  writer  could  not 
more  significantly  intimate  than  in  this  way  what  was  to  be  the 
subject  of  his  narrative,  how  the  past  was  to  be  fulfilled  in  Him. 

I  have  used  the  word  "  fulfilled,"  in  anticipation  of  the  next 
passage  in  the  chapter.  Undoubtedly  one  who  was  a  virgin  at 
the  time  when  Isaiah  spoke  to  x^haz,  conceived  and  bore  a  son, 
as  we  are  told  distinctly  that  the  prophetess  did  in  the  eighth 
chapter.  I  apprehend  that  St.  Matthew^,  so  far  from  overlooking 
this  fact,  or  its  connection  with  the  other  events  which  befel 
Ahaz  and  the  land  of  Israel,  is  especially  desirous  to  remind  us 
of  them.  He  wishes  us  to  recollect  that  Ahaz  showed  utter 
faithlessness  in  God's  covenant,  and  that  since  he  did  so,  the 
Lord  Himself  promised  to  give  a  sign  which  should  show  that 
the  accomplishment  of  the  promises  to  the  house  of  David  stood 
not  in  his  faithfulness,  nor  in  the  faithfulness  of  that  house.  The 
sign  to  Ahaz  that  his  land  w^ould  be  preserved,  and  that  Samaria 
and  Syria  would  be  destroyed,  was  given.  There  was  no  disap- 
pointment, no  trafficking  with  words  in  a  double  sense,  no  indef- 
inite postponement  of  that  which  the  Prophet  declared  would  be 
immediate.  But  the  meaning  of  the  sign  was  not  fulfilled — 
could  not  be  fulfilled — unless  a  perfect  King  should  actually  be 
given  to  David's  house,  unless  that  King  should  be  the  Son  of 
God.     The  sign  itself  was  accomplished  precisely  in  the  sense  in 


122  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

which  it  must  have  been  understood  ;  not  by  any  departure  from 
the  ordinary  rule  of  conception  and  birth,  though  the  Prophet 
felt  that  he  and  his  children  were,  from  their  very  calling,  signs 
and  wonders  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts.  But  when  the  intention  was 
completely  fulfilled,  it  was  necessary  that  the  sign  itself  should 
be  fulfilled  by  an  extraordinary  indeed,  but,  as  I  have  dared  to 
say,  by  the  most  natural,  method  in  which  so  divine,  and  yet  so 
human  a  fact,  could  take  place. 

CHAPTER    H. 

Thus  far,  then,  without  departing  from  the  supposition  which 
is  common  to  all  interpreters,  that  St.  Matthew  was  a  Hebrew, 
and,  writing  to  Hebrews, — only  assuming  that  to  have  been  his 
faith,  which  we  have  already  ascertained  by  other  inquiries  to 
have  been  his  faith, — I  have  arrived  at  what  seems  a  consistent 
view  of  the  first  chapter.  But  if  we  have  understood  that  view, 
especially  if  we  have  entered  into  his  use  of  the  word  "  fulfilment," 
the  difficulties  of  the  second  chapter  will,  I  think,  not  be  found 
very  serious.  I  confess,  that  either  upon  the  ordinary  hypothesis 
that  the  history  is  primarily  the  history  of  a  human  person,  or 
upon  the  notion  that  St.  Matthew  was  an  Ebionite,  or  upon  the 
hypothesis  that  several  inconsistent  narratives  have  been  thrown 
into  one,  these  difficulties  seem  to  me  quite  insurmountable. 

The  chapter  opens  with  the  story  of  the  visit  and  adoration  of 
the  Magi.  This  Jiiay  be  taken  as  one  of  the  strange  and  super- 
natural events  which  attested  Jesus  of  Nazareth  to  be  a  great 
prophet.  But  it  so  entirely  breaks  the  order  of  the  narrative,  it 
forms  such  an  isolated  story  concerning  His  childhood,  it  has  so 
little  connection  with  His  acts  or  teaching  as  a  prophet  or  as  the 
founder  of  a  religion,  that  I  cannot  wonder  that  those  who  re- 
gard Him  chiefly  in  these  characters  should  have  been  eager  to 
throw  the  narrative  aside.  If  it  is  thrown  aside,  whence  did  it 
come  ?  Not  from  an  Ebionite  surely  ;  for  the  kingly  character 
of  the  child,  which  is  here  put  so  prominently  forward,  was  that 
which  Ebionites  were  least  disposed  to  regard ;  and  so  far  from 


ST.    MATTHEW.  1 23 

delighting  to  think  of  Him  as  manifested  to  the  Gentiles,  their 
whole  labor  was  to  prove  that  the  New  Covenant  was  as  strictly 
limited  as  the  Old.  Unless  the  process  of  compilation  can  be 
explained,  and  the  piece-work  detected,  it  is  just  as  gratuitous, 
uncritical,  unsatisfactory  a  method  of  cutting  a  knot  as  the  resort 
to  a  miracle  ;  in  fact  it  is  the  Deus  ex  Mac/iind,  or  modern  indo- 
lence and  superstition. 

But  what  had  St.  Matthew  to  believe  in  order  to  make  this  a 
consistent  narrative  ?  That  the  God  of  Abraham  did  promise 
that  in  the  seed  of  Abraham  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  should 
be  blessed.  That  God  did  promise  to  raise  up  a  Son  of  David 
who  should  rule  over  the  Gentiles.  That  the  wisdom  of  Gentiles 
had  been  imparted  to  them  by  God.  That  He  was  the  teacher 
and  the  ruler  of  the  Gentiles.  Once  grant  these  postulates, 
enormous,  absolutely  incredible,  postulates  to  a  modern  critic, 
but  a  natural  inevitable  part  of  the  belief  of  every  instructed  He- 
brew, and  the  story  of  the  Magians  becomes  a  perfectly  reasona- 
ble one.  Instead  of  our  being  called  upon  to  believe  that  these 
Magians  received  some  fortuitous  miraculous  announcement  of 
our  Lord's  birth,  such  as  was  given  to  Habakkuk  about  Daniel 
in  the  apocryphal  story  of  Bel  and  the  Dragon,  we  are  told  that 
they  became  apprised  of  the  birth  of  a  King  of  the  Jews  while 
they  were  engaged  in  the  occupation  of  every  Eastern  sage,  the 
study  of  the  stars.  Honor  is  put  upon  laborious  scientific  dili- 
gence. An  unseen  guide  is  said  to  lead  them.  But  the  interme- 
diate guide  is  a  star  which  they  have  been  watching— a  star 
which  they  would,  like  all  Persian  astronomers,  regard  as  a  king 
or  dynast  of  the  earth,  and  would  connect  with  some  actual  ruler. 
Such  a  hint  is  invaluable,  as  pointing  out  the  nature  of  the  prep- 
aration for  the  Gospel,  not  in  the  minds  of  one  class  of  Gentile 
philosophers,  but  of  all :  in  each  case  the  subject  to  which  he 
had  devoted  himself  the  most  earnestly  and  faithfully  being  the 
means  of  leading  him  to  the  true  King.  But  the  story  of  course 
assumes  that  this  Child  was  the  true  King ;  that  there  was  a 
divine  glory  in  Him  ;  that  this  glory  could  manifest  itself.  We 
cannot  avoid  that  assumption ;  we  can  only  say  that  to  make  it 


124  LECTURE    I,       PART    IT. 

does  not  involve  a  belief  in  the  inconsistency  of  St.  Matthew, 
but  enables  us  to  feel  his  consistency. 

The  part  of  this  narrative  which  concerns  Herod  and  the 
priests  is  entirely  natural  and  consistent  with  all  that  we  know 
of  either.  That  an  Edomite  reigning  by  the  choice  of  Antony 
and  the  toleration  of  Augustus,  should  tremble  at  the  notion 
that  a  native  prince  might  be  at  hand,  we  should  all  expect. 
That  Herod  should  consult  the  Jewish  authorities,  whom  he  was 
always  anxious  to  conciliate,  and  should  take  it  for  granted  that 
an  anointed  king  was  sometime  or  other  to  be  born,  is  perfectly 
in  accordance  with  all  we  know  of  the  feelings  of  the  time.  That 
the  priests  should  fix  upon  Bethlehem,  the  city  of  David,  as  the 
birth-place  of  his  descendant,  and  that  they  should  have  quoted 
Micah  in  support  of  their  opinion,  was  equally  to  be  expected. 
The  important  point  in  reference  to  this  last  fact  is,  that  the 
Evangelists  dwell  so  little  upon  the  birth  at  Bethlehem,  upon 
which  the  priests  dwelt  so  exclusively  ;  that  they  rest  our  Lord's 
claims  to  be  received  upon  evidence  wholly  distinct  from  that  of 
connection  with  the  royal  village.  That  the  wise  men  should 
present  gold  and  frankincense  and  myrrh  to  the  infant,  implies 
of  course  the  previous  notion  of  a  divine  King,  but  is  in  itself 
consistent  and  oriental. 

Then  follows  the  passage,  "  And  when  they  were  departed, 
behold,  an  angel  of  the  Lord  appeared  unto  Joseph  in  a  dream, 
saying.  Arise,  and  take  the  young  child  and  his  mother,  and  flee 
into  Egypt,  and  be  thou  there  until  I  bring  thee  word  :  for 
Herod  will  seek  the  young  child  to  destroy  him.  When  he  arose, 
he  took  the  young  child  and  his  mother  by  night,  and  departed 
into  Egypt :  and  was  there  until  the  death  of  Herod  ;  that  it 
might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  of  the  Lord,  by  the  prophet, 
saying,  Out  of  Egypt  have  I  called  my  son."  Every  one  has,  I 
suppose,  been  puzzled  by  this  quotation  Is  it  not  a  most  forced 
application  of  the  words  of  Hosea?  Can  any  one  read  him  and 
think  that  any  other  call  than  that  of  the  Jews  out  of  Egypt  was 
in  the  prophet's  mind  ?  Is  he  not  evidently  alluding  to  the  past 
rather  than  the  future .?     I  at  least  cannot  have  any  doubt  that 


ST.    MATTHEW.  125 

he  is.  The  whole  context  of  the  prophecy  requires  that  interpre- 
tation. But  do  I  therefore  admit  that  St.  Matthew  was  merely 
playing  with  the  words  of  a  writer  whom  he  believed,  whether 
we  do  or  not,  to  have  been  God's  prophet  ?  Is  he  merely  catch- 
ing up  a  chance  frivolous  application  of  a  sentence  that  hap- 
pened to  come  at  that  moment  into  his  memory  ?  I  apprehend 
the  case  was  altogether  otherwise.  He  looked  for  the  fulfilment 
not  merely  of  those  particular  words,  but  of  the  idea  to  which 
those  words  with  their  context,  and  with  the  context  of  the  his- 
tory, were  pointing.  Why  does  God  call  Israel  His  son  ?  This 
was  the  mystery  which  had  to  be  cleared  up.  Till  it  was  cleared 
up,  the  histpry  of  the  people,  of  the  deliverances  which  God  had 
wrought  for  them,  of  his  continual  paternal  care  and  paternal 
chastisements,  was  not  fulfilled.  If  St.  Matthew  regarded  Jesus 
as  the  Son  of  God,  he  believed  that  in  him  this  history  was  ful- 
filled. The  actual  relation  of  Him  who  had  taken  the  seed  of 
Abraham  to  God,  brought  out  that  relation  of  the  children  of 
Abraham  to  God  which  his  acts  implied,  but  which  had  not  yet 
been  made  manifest.  But  how  was  it  to  be  signified  to  the 
Israelite  that  this  was  his  King,  that  this  was  He  in  whom  God 
had  looked  upon  the  people  amidst  all  their  murmurings  and 
transgressions,  as  his  own  holy  family.?  The  Evangelists  held 
that  all  the  acts  of  our  Lord's  life  were  significant,  that  it  was 
not  by  chance  that  he  went  to  Egypt  instead  of  to  any  other 
place,  not  by  chance  that  he  was  recalled  thence.  All  was  a 
part  of  the  Divine  purpose  and  order.  Thus  the  life  of  the 
people  was  connected  with  the  life  of  their  king,  thus  Hosea's 
language  respecting  the  one  was  interpreted  by  that  which  befel 
the  other.  Such  a  mode  of  considering  the  subject  would  be 
surely  natural  if  St.  Matthew  had  that  object  in  view  which  I 
have  supposed  him  to  have.  I  do  not  pretend  to  consider  it 
natural  or  intelligible  if  he  had  any  other. 

Then  follows  the  murder  of  the  infants  at  Bethlehem,  an  event 
which  in  itself  requires  no  explanation.  It  is  perfectly  consist- 
ent with  all  we  know  of  Herod's  character,  that  he  should  take 
that  course  if  he  had  any  dread  himself,  or  if  he   supposed  any 


126  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

Other  persons  to  have  a  hope,  that  an  heir  of  the  house  of  David 
was  born  who  might  supplant  him.  The  strangeness  is  again  in 
the  supposed  fulfilment  of  the  words  of  the  prophet,  "  In  Ramah 
was  a  voice  heard,"  etc.  Upon  any  other  principle  of  explana- 
tion than  the  one  I  have  just  adopted,  Jeremiah's  words  must 
be  as  much  distorted  from  their  natural  force  as  Hosea's.  The 
mother  of  the  Jewish  race  is  evidently  weeping  there  over  her 
children,  who  are  about  to  be  taken  captive  into  Babylon  ;  she 
will  not  be  comforted  because  they  are  nowhere  to  be  found  in 
the  country  of  Jacob  and  Joseph.  She  is  told  to  refrain  from 
weeping,  for  her  children  shall  come  again  out  of  the  captivity ; 
the  nation  will  live,  though  so  many  of  its  inhabitants  were  to 
perish.  Where  are  we  to  look  for  the  fulfilment  of  the  prophet's 
sorrow  and  the  prophet's  hope  ?  Here  is  the  king  and  deliverer, 
says  the  Evangelist,  the  brother,  the  Joseph  of  the  family,  who 
is  to  become  its  head,  who  is  to  preserve  its  life.  These  events 
of  his  childhood,  the  deaths  which  accompany  it,  his  own  deliver- 
ance, connect  him  with  the  history  of  his  land  ;  not  only  with  its 
past,  but  with  its  future  history;  not  only  with  the  captivity* 
which  had  been,  but  the  captivity  which  was  to  be.  The  deaths 
of  these  children  called  forth  the  tears  of  a  few  Jewish  mothers ; 
many  more  Jewish  mothers  would  weep  over  the  loss  of  their 
children  before  that  generation  was  over  ;  Rachel  would  weep 
over  the  apparent  extinction  of  her  whole  family  ;  and  yet  as  the 
Head  of  it  had  been  saved,  blessings  and  a  higher  deliverance 
would  come  out  of  the  ruin.  Such  a  view  of  the  text  as  this,  of 
course  presumes  a  belief  in  the  organic  life  of  the  nation,  in  a 
vital  connection  between  all  the  different  portions  of  its  history. 
But  I  ask,  whether  it  is  possible  to  read  the  Old  Testament  with- 
out perceiving  that  this  feeling  pervaded  the  mind  of  every  legis- 
lator and  prophet  ?  I  ask  whether,  if  the  New  Testament 
performs  its  promise  of  explaining  the  Old,  it  must  not  take  us 
into  the  very  heart  of  this  mystery,  and  show  us  the  centre  to 
which  all  the  different  lines  we  trace  through  these  records  were 
converging  ? 

Once  more,  we  are  told  that  Joseph  found  Archelaus  reigning 


ST.    MATTHEW.  12/ 

when  he  returned  from  Egypt,  that  he  feared  therefore  to  go 
into  Judasa,  that  he  turned  aside  into  the  parts  of  Galilee,  and 
went  and  dwelt  in  Nazareth  ;  so  the  words  of  the  Prophets  were 
fulfilled,  "  He  shall  be  called  a  Nazarene."  In  the  two  former 
cases  we  had  no  difficulty  in  detecting  the  passage  which  was 
referred  to,  however  we  might  be  puzzled  by  the  application  of 
it.  Here  we  are  at  fault  as  to  the  quotation  itself.  "  It  was 
spoken  by  X\\q prophets,'^  says  St.  Matthew;  we  are  not  therefore 
to  expect  that  we  shall  find  the  words  in  any  particular  prophet  ; 
the  Evangelist  must  refer  to  some  general  meaning  which  he 
traces  through  all  of  them,  and  which  this  sentence,  whether  it 
exists  in  that  form  or  not,  aptly  embodies.  Looking  at  the  act- 
ual reputation  of  Nazareth  as  it  is  indicated  so  many  times  in  the 
Evangelists  ;  looking  at  the  argument  from  his  dwelling  in  Gali- 
lee, which  was  so  decisive  with  the  Jews  against  his  title  to  be 
accounted  a  king  ;  looking  at  all  that  was  intimated  by  the  word 
"  Nazarene,"  when  it  was  bestowed  upon  the  disciples,  I  cannot 
but  suppose  that  the  simplest  interpretation  of  the  words  is  the 
most  accurate  ;  that  the  Evangelist  thinks  of  all  such  passages 
in  the  prophets  as  indicate  that  the  coming  king  and  prophet 
should  be  like  past  kings  and  prophets,  like  the  nation  itself  of 
which  he  was  the  head,  despised  and  rejected  ;  none  seeing  his 
comeliness,  none  being  able  to  declare  his  generation.  In  this 
way  the  passage  is  in  keeping  with  all  that  precede  and  follow 
it,  and  explains,  better  than  almost  any  other,  what  St.  Matthew 
understood  by  the  accomplishment  of  prophecy. 


CHAPTER  III.    IV. 

We  come  now  to  a  part  of  St.  Matthew  which  we  have  con- 
sidered already.  The  peculiarity  in  his  account  of  the  baptism 
is,  that  he  introduces  the  words,  "But  John  forbade  him,  saying, 
I  have  need  to  be  baptized  of  Thee,  and  comest  Thou  to  me  ? 
And  Jesus  answering  said  unto  him,  Suffer  it  to  be  so  now  :  for 
thus  it  becometh  us  to  fulfil  all  righteousness."     I   do  not  know 


128  LECTURE    I.      PART    II. 

that  there  is  any  thing  in  these  words  which  assists  us  in  deter- 
mining the  object  of  this  Evangelist,  but  it  is  at  least  curious 
that  the  Ebionite  gospel  should  be  the  one  into  which  the  asser- 
tion of  our  Lord's  superiority  to  John  is  introduced.  At  the 
same  time,  the  words  "  fulfilling  righteousness  "  have  a  specially 
Jewish  sound  and  character,  and  they  interpret  the  other  uses  of 
the  ^oi^  fulfilled^  to  which  we  have  just  adverted. 

The  righteous  man  of  the  Old  Testament  was  the  man  whom 
the  righteous  God  chose  and  set  apart  to  Himself,  the  ma.i  who 
believed  in  God,  and  to  whom  God's  righteousness  was  imputed. 
He  fulfilled  his  righteousness  who  submitted  to  the  calling  of 
God  through  whatever  voice  it  came,  who  submitted  to  every 
ordinance  of  God  as  the  signification  of  His  mind  and  will.  This 
is  evidently  implied  in  the  words  ;  it  is  surely  consistent  with  the 
previous  passages  that  something  more  should  be  implied,  viz. 
that  the  righteousness  of  the  law  was  now  fulfilled  or  accom- 
plished in  a  person,  and  that  His  baptism  was  the  proof  that  it 
was.  The  Son  submits  to  the  servant  that  He  may  be  declared 
to  be  the  Son.  This  idea  so  pervades  the  Gospel  that  it  presents 
itself  unawares  at  every  turn  of  the  narrative. 

The  order  of  the  temptations  in  St.  Matthew  is  different,  as 
all  have  observed,  from  that  in  St.  Luke.  The  offer  of  the 
kingdoms  of  the  world  in  the  first  Gospel  follows,  in  the  third 
precedes,  the  invitation  to  cast  Himself  from  the  pinnacle  of  the 
temple.  Others  have  refined  upon  this  difference  more  than  I 
wish  to  do;  though  I  cannot  help  feeling  that  there  is  a  mean- 
ing in  it  ;  not  one  thrust  into  it  by  the  writer,  but  springing 
naturally  from  the  purpose  and  habit  of  his  mind.  The  charac- 
teristic temptation  of  the  Jew  was  to  cast  himself  from  the 
ground  upon  which  God  had  placed  him,  from  His  covenant  and 
worship,  into  the  idolatries  of  the  nations  roundabout;  the  char- 
acteristic temptation  of  the  Gentile,  and  of  those  who  belonged 
to  the  new  dispensation,  has  been  to  seek  universal  dominion  by 
paying  homage  to  the  Evil  Spirit. 

After  the  temptation,  begins  the  history  of  the  preaching  of 
our  Lord.     He  goes  down,  says  St.  Matthew,  into  "  the  borders 


ST.    MATTHEW.  1 29 

of  Zabulon  and  Nephthalim  :  that  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was 
spoken  by  the  prophet  Esaias,  saying,  the  land  of  Zabulon,"  &c. 
The  connection  of  this  passage  with  the  general  prophecy  of 
Isaiah,  I  should  conceive  was  this  :  Just  at  the  time  when  the 
dimness  and  darkness  of  the  land  of  Judaea  is  greatest,  through 
the  idolatries  of  Ahaz,  just  at  the  time  when  the  destruction  of 
the  ten  tribes  is  consummated,  a  great  light  appears  in  the  land, 
a  king  is  raised  up  who  rules  in  righteousness.  Hezekiah  does 
not  feel  himself  only  a  Jerusalem  king :  the  whole  land  is  God's 
land  ;  He  invites  those  to  come  up  to  the  great  passover  who 
had  been  separated  from  Judah  ever  since  the  time  of  Jeroboam. 
Even  to  the  furthest  corners  of  the  land,  to  the  very  borders  of 
the  Gentiles,  his  gracious  sovereignty  extends  ;  these  remote 
people  feel  once  more  that  they  are  under  the  divine  govern- 
ment. The  language  of  Isaiah  in  speaking  of  this  great  coming 
change  is  not  exaggerated.  It  is  not  easy  to  exaggerate  the  dif- 
ference between  the  influence  of  a  sensual  tyrant,  or  an  utter 
anarchy,  and  the  sway  of  a  king  who  feels  that  he  is  raised  up 
to  shov/  forth  God's  rule  over  his  subjects.  St.  Matthew  has  the 
whole  passage  present  to  his  mind.  The  king  is  the  central  ob- 
ject in  it.  The  particular  words  respecting  Zabulon  and  Neph- 
thalim express  how  his  power  pervaded  the  whole  land  and 
reached  to  the  furthest  limits  of  it ;  these  therefore  are  the  words 
which  are  said  to  be  fulfilled  in  that  visit  to  Galilee  of  the  Gen- 
tiles, as  a  sign  that  the  whole  was  fulfilled  in  the  true  and  per- 
fect King.  The  fulfilment  is  therefore  literal.  The  poor  in- 
habitants of  that  region,  as  wretched,  probably,  in  the  days  of 
Herod  and  of  Roman  ascendancy^as  morally  dark — as  at  the 
time  of  the  first  captivity,  actually  felt  the  presence  of  a  Divine 
teacher  and  deliverer, — of  a  King.  But  the  fulfilment  to  them 
is  the  sign  and  witness  of  the  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy  to  the 
whole  nation,  and  through  the  nation  to  mankind.  The  univer- 
sal is  seen  in  the  individual,  according  to  the  Scripture  method, 
which  is  also  the  method  of  nature,  the  method  of  the  reason, 
in  short,  the  divine  method  in  all  its  manifestations. 

9 


I^O  LECTURE    1.       PART    II. 


CHAPTERS  V.  VI.  VIL 


I  shall  not  now  enter  into  the  question  whether  the  Sermon  in 
the  sixth  chapter  of  St.  Luke,  is,  or  is  not,  to  be  identified  with 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  But  I  shall  point  out  the  great  per- 
vading difference  between  them,  which  every  one  who  studies  them 
with  the  least  attention  will  perceive.  The  words,  "  I  am  not 
come  to  destroy  the  law,  but  to  fulfil,"  have  nothing  correspond- 
ing to  them  in  the  sixth  chapter  of  St.  Luke.  But  the  whole  of 
the  comparison  between  what  had  been  said  in  old  time  and  what 
our  Lord  spoke  then,  begins  with  these  words  and  evidently 
turns  upon  them.  I  conceive  that  the  whole  discourse  in  St. 
Matthew  must  be  interpreted  by  reference  to  these.  And  if  we 
do  so  interpret  it,  we  shall  be  more  and  more  struck  with  the 
difference  which  our  Lord  points  out  between  the  age  which  had 
preceded  Him  and  that  which  He  was  come  to  establish.  He 
has  carefully  told  us  that  He  has  come  to  destroy  nothing.  The 
least  commandment  would  still  be  precious.  Why  then  should 
the  contrast  seem  to  be  so  great  ?  The  last  verse  in  the  fifth 
chapter  explains  the  ground  of  it.  "  Be  ye  therefore  perfect,  as 
your  Father  which  is  in  heaven  is  perfect."  This  is  the  fulfil- 
ment which  you  trace  throughout  the  whole  chapter.  The  name 
"  Father,"  is  one  which  recurs  at  every  turn,  which  forms  the 
ground  of  every  sentence.  Compare  any  chapter  of  Leviticus 
with  this,  "  I  am  the  Lord,"  "  I  the  Lord  am  in  the  midst  of  you." 
This  is  the  continually  repeated  formula,  this  was  the  ground  of 
that  which  was  said  by  them  of  old  time.  Great  and  wonderful 
words  they  were,  words  that  could  not  pass  away.  This  is  the 
everlasting  foundation  of  a  Decree.  There  can  be  no  other. 
But  our  Lord  uttered  no  decrees.  He  revealed  the  actual  mind 
of  God,  and  showed  how  that  mind  was  intended  to  become,  and 
could  become,  the  mind  of  men  ;  for  it  was  the  mind  of  His 
Father,  and  He  was  come  to  them  as  a  brother.  Take  this  idea 
away  from  the   Sermon   on   the   Mount,  and   you  do  not  merely 


ST.    MATTHEW.  13 1 

destroy  its  unity  ;  you  destroy  the  sanction  and  the  intelligibility 
of  every  one  of  its  separate  utterances.  You  cannot  make  out 
why  a  man  should  not  pray  in  the  corners  of  streets  to  be 
seen  of  men ;  you  cannot  make  out  why  he  should  not  do  his 
alms  before  men  to  be  seen  of  them  ;  you  cannot  make  out  why 
he  should  not  take  thought  for  the  morrow  ;  you  cannot  make 
out  why  he  should  ask  and  hope  to  receive.  "  Your  Father 
seeth  in  secret ;  your  Father  knoweth  you  have  need  of  these 
things ;  if  ye  being  evil  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  to  your 
children,  shall  not  your  heavenly  Father  give  good  things  to 
them  that  ask  Him  >  Here  we  have  the  only  explanation  which 
our  Lord  thinks  right  to  give. 

I  shall  not  go  step  by  step  through  this  great  discourse.  The 
hint  which  I  have  given  will  be  sufficient  for  any  one  who  wishes 
to  investigate  the  subject  more  carefully ;  I  am  sure  he  will  have 
a  rich  reward,  and  that  he  will  be  able  to  tell  me  innumerable 
things  which  I  have  not  observed,  which  illustrate  the  Evangel- 
ist's meaning  more  fully,  perhaps,  than  those  which  I  have  set 
down 

CHAPTER  VHI. 

I  would  remark  upon  this  chapter  that  St.  Matthew  introduces 
into  the  story  of  the  healing  of  the  centurion's  servant,  "  And  I 
say  unto  you,  that  many  shall  come  from  the  east  and  west,  and 
shall  sit  down  with  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  in  the  king- 
dom of  heaven.  But  the  children  of  the  kingdom  shall  be  ca§t 
out  into  outer  darkness  :  there  shall  be  weeping  and  gnashing  of 
teeth."  That  St.  Matthew  should  go  out  of  his  way,  as  it  were, 
to  record  sentences  of  this  kind,  is  inexplicable  upon  the  hy- 
pothesis that  he  was  especially  jealous,  as  every  Ebionite  was,  of 
the  intrusion  of  Gentiles  into  the  covenant^  Such  passages 
therefore  must  be  treated  by  those  who  hold  that  h37pothesis,  as 
the  interpolations  of  a  later  compiler.  Why  he  should  choose 
St.  Matthew  as  the  special  object  of  his  experiments,  does 
not   appear.      On   the  other  hand,  if  St.   Matthew  were    writ- 


132  LECTURE    I.       PART    11. 

ing  as  a  Hebrew  to  Hebrews,  nothing  would  be  so  natural  as 
that  he  should  dwell  upon  the  evidence  that  in  them  and  their 
seed  the  other  nations  were  to  be  blessed,  or  that  he  should 
warn  them,  as  the  prophets  of  old  did,  how  near  they  were  to 
desolation  and  apostasy.  Such  must  have  been  the  continual 
tone  of  St.  James's  preaching  to  his  fellow-citizens  at  Jerusalem. 
The  difference  between  his  and  St.  Paul's  was,  as  we  shall  find 
hereafter,  very  decided  and  remarkable  ;  but  it  did  not  consist 
in  the  fact  that  one  was  more  tolerant  of  the  sins  of  the  Jews 
than  the  other,  or  believed  less  than  the  prophecies  respecting 
the  Gentiles  were  to  be  accomplished.  Nor  is  this  the  nature  of 
the  contrast  between  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Luke.  Their  admoni- 
tions respecting  the  coming  calamities  on  the  Jewish  nation  are 
in  many  respects  curiously  distinguished.  But  it  is  a  distinction 
of  kind,  not  of  degree.  If  there  is  any  difference,  St.  Matthew  is 
the  more  earnest  and  frequent  in  his  warnings,  because,  as  one 
treating  of  the  fulfilment  of  prophecy,  this  was  obviously  part  of 
his  province. 

An  instance  of  prophetical  fulfilments  occurs  in  this  passage. 
"  When  the  even  was  come,  they  brought  unto  Him  many  that 
were  possessed  with  devils  :  and  He  cast  out  the  spirits  with  His 
word,  and  healed  all  that  were  sick:  that  it  might  be  fulfilled 
which  was  spoken  by  Esaias  the  prophet,  saying.  Himself  took 
our  infirmities,  and  bare  our  sicknesses,"  As  it  has  been  so 
much  the  habit  of  commentators  to  restrict  the  meaning  of  these 
words  to  the  death  of  our  Lord,  most  readers,  I  suppose,  feel  a 
little  startled  when  they  find  this  application  of  them  by  an 
Apostle  and  an  Evangelist.  Surely  St.  Matthew  understood  the 
prophet  at  least  as  well  as  we  do.  The  healing  sicknesses  and 
casting  out  devils  seemed  to  him  to  involve  bearing  sicknesses 
and  infirmities.  Only  He  who  suffered  them  could  remove  them. 
His  power  to  relieve  the  woes  of  humanity  could  not  be  sepa- 
rated from  His  participation  in  them.  Christ's  brotherhood  with 
man  answered  to  all  the  anticipations  which  prophets  had  formed 
of  their  king.  Without  it  there  could  have  been  no  fulfilment  of 
God's  promises  or  man's  cravings. 


ST.    MATTHEW.  1 33 


CHAPTER  IX. 

I  have  already  commented  on  the  passage  in  this  chapter 
which  refers  to  the  feast  in  Matthew's  house,  and  to  the  reason 
for  the  disciples  of  John  and  the  Pharisees  fasting  while  the  dis- 
ciples of  Jesus  did  not  fast.  The  peculiarity  in  the  narrative  of 
St.  Matthew  is  that  he  introduces  the  words,  "  Go  ye,  and  learn 
what  that  meaneth,  I  will  have  mercy,  and  not  sacrifice."  This 
allusion,  slight  as  it  is,  opens  a  very  wide  view  of  the  nature  of 
the  old  economy,  as  well  as  of  the  new.  The  tendency  of  the 
Jewish  worshipper  was  always  to  fancy  that  his  sacrifices  were 
buying  God's  mercy.  The  continual  teaching  of  the  Law  and 
the  Prophets  is,  that  the  mercy  was  itself  the  ground  of  the 
sacrifices.  Instead  of  contradicting,  then,  the  meaning  of  the  Old 
Law  by  showing  mercy  to  those  who  were  not  righteous.  He  was 
fulfilling  it.  He  was  carrying  out  the  mind  of  God  towards  men  ; 
He  was  exhibiting  Him  as  the  Author  of  forgiveness,  of  deliver- 
ance, of  righteousness  to  men.  Observe  how  naturally  this  per- 
vading feeling  of  the  Evangelist's  mind  expresses  itself  in  all  his 
quotations ;  how,  at  every  turn  in  his  Gospel,  our  Lord  is  bring- 
ing out  the  mind  of  the  God  of  Abraham,  and  showing  it  to  be 
the  mind  of  a  Father. 

CHAPTER   X. 

I  have  remarked  already  that  the  directions  to  the  Apostles 
are  given  much  more  in  detail  by  St.  Matthew  than  by  the  other 
Evangelists,  and  especially  that  St.  Luke  transfers  to  the  seventy 
much  of  what  St.  Matthew  sets  down  with  reference  to  the 
twelve.  Supposing  that  St.  Matthew  designed  to  show  the  ful- 
filment of  the  Old  Dispensation  in  the  New,  and  St.  Luke  to  be 
the  teacher  of  the  Gentiles,  I  think  that  we  should  certainly  have 
expected  this  difference. 

The  apostolic  office,  with   all  its  largeness  and  catholicity,  is 


134  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

the  unfolding  or  fulfilment  of  the  tribe  institution.  It  represents 
the  Jewish  nation,  while  it  makes  that  nation  what  it  was  always 
meant  to  be,  the  teacher  and  evangelizer  of  the  world.  The 
directions  in  this  chapter  clearly  belong  to  them  first  in  their 
character  of  teachers  of  the  lost  sheep  of  the  House  of  Israel,  to 
whom,  on  their  first  mission,  they  were  to  confine  themselves, 
though  every  warning  and  exhortation  looked  on  to  a  subsequent 
period,  when  their  office  should  be  unlimited.  That  character- 
istic of  the  Evangelist,  which  I  noticed  in  the  last  chapter,  is 
here  very  prominent :  "  It  is  not  ye  that  speak,  but  the  Spirit  of 
your  Father  which  speaketh  in  you."  "  Are  not  two  sparrows 
sold  for  a  farthing?  and  one  of  them  shall  not  fall  on  the  ground 
without  your  Father."  Here  we  have  the  special  ground  of  the 
Apostles'  faith  and  consolation.  In  that  name  Father  also,  as  I 
believe,  lay  the  foundation  of  their  office.  It  was  that  which  by 
their  acts,  as  well  as  their  words,  they  were  continually  to  be 
setting  forth. 

CHAPTER  XI.  * 

St.  Matthew  and  St.  Luke  both  record  the  coming  of  John's 
disciples  to  Christ,  and  the  conversation  which  followed  after 
they  were  gone.  There  is  one  passage*  in  the  latter  which  is 
peculiar  to  St.  Matthew :  "  And  if  ye  will  receive  it,  this  is  Elias, 
which  was  for  to  come."  In  the  account  of  the  Transfiguration 
St.  Matthew  tells  us  that  our  Lord  said,  "  Elias  had  already 
come,  and  that  the  people  had  done  to  him  what  they  listed ;  and 
that  the  disciples  then  understood  that  He  spake  of  John  the 
Baptist :  "  He  is  the  only  Evangelist  who  directly  identifies  them. 
St.  John,  in  a  passage  whfch  I  shall  have  to  consider  hereafter, 
seems  to   say  that  the   Baptist  himself  disclaimed  the   name   of 

*  The  two  preceding  verses  "  From  the  days  of  John  the  Baptist  until  now 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  &c.,  are  not  introduced  by  St.  Luke  into  this  conver- 
sation; but  in  the  i6th  verse  of  the  i6th  chapter  there  are  words  very  nearly 
resembling  them.  Their  bearing  upon  the  subject  of  John  the  Baptist  will 
be  understood  from  the  remarks  in  the  text. 


ST.    MATTHEW.  1 35 

Elias.  It  will  be  seen  at  once  how  entirely  it  is  in  accordance 
with  the  purpose  I  have  traced  in  St.  Matthew  to  dwell  upon 
this  point.  All  the  announcements,  principles,  ideas  of  the  old 
economy  were  to  be  fulfilled  in  the  new.  The  advent  of  Christ 
was  to  substantiate  the  indications  in  Jewish  history  and  Jewish 
prophecy.  Elijah,  who  had  proclaimed  the  Lord  God  of  Abra- 
ham in  the  face  of  Jezebel  and  her  priests  and  her  idols,  must 
have  his  counterpart  before  the  Jewish  age  was  wound  up.  There 
must  be  a  protester  for  the  Lord  God  of  Abraham  against  the 
heart-idolatries,  the  fleshly  worship,  of  Pharisees  and  Sadducees, 
a  witness  that  He  was  indeed  manifesting  Himself,  that  a  great 
Day  of  the  Lord  was  come.  The  Evangelist  never,  I  think,  for 
a  moment  ceases  to  think  of  our  Lord  as  the  revealer  of  the 
mind  of  that  God  for  whom  Elijah  had  testified ;  as  fully  declar- 
ing His  righteousness,  and  His  judgments. 

There  is  one  memorable  passage  before  the  end  of  this  chap- 
ter which  belongs  solely  to  St.  Matthew.  It  is  that  which  taught 
St.  Augustine  the  difference  between  the  teaching  of  Christ  and 
that  of  the  best  philosophers  :  "  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor 
and  ai-e  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest."  The  words  are 
sufficiently  beautiful  if  they  stood  alone,  unconnected  with  the 
passage  immediately  preceding,  which  occurs  without  them  in 
the  tenth  chapter  of  St.  Luke.  But  Augustine  can  never  have 
separated  them  fiom  that  sentence.  The  heavy  burden  upon  his 
soul  was  the  sense  of  ignorance  of  God  and  of  separation  from 
Him.  The  philosophers  could  awaken  this  sense,  but  could  not 
satisfy  it  when  it  was  awakened.  He  who  could  say  that  He 
knew  the  Father,  and  was  willing  to  reveal  Him,  could  say, 
"  Come  unto  me,  I  will  give  you  rest."  And  He  could  then  call 
upon  them  to  take  His  yoke,  to  work  with  Him  in  his  Father's 
Kingdom,  to  become  a  son  lowly  and  obedient  as  the  Son  was  ; 
so  to  cast  off  the  heavy  oppression  of  pride  and  self-will.  A  soul 
crying  out  for  the  living  God,  could  understand  that  language. 
Those  who  had  entered  into  the  cries  of  the  psalmist  and  proph- 
ets of  old,  could  understand  and  may  understand  still,  how 
Christ  responded  to  them  and  fulfilled  them. 


136  LECTURE    I.      PART    II. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


This  chapter  gives  us  another  instance  of  the  kind  which  we 
have  considered  so  often  before.  "  And  Jesus  withdrew  Him- 
self from  thence  :  and  great  multitudes  followed  Him,  and  He 
healed  them  all  ;  and  charged  them  that  they  should  not  make 
Him  known  :  that  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  by 
Esaias  the  prophet,  saying,  Behold  my  servant,  whom  I  have 
chosen  ;  my  beloved,  in  whom  my  soul  is  well  pleased  :  I  will 
put  my  spirit  upon  Him,  and  He  shall  show  judgment  to  the 
Gentiles.  He  shall  not  strive,  nor  cry  ;  neither  shall  any  man 
hear  his  voice  in  the  streets.  A  bruised  reed  shall  he  not  break, 
and  smokfng  flax  shall  he  not  quench,  until  he  send  forth  judg 
ment  unto  victory.     And  in  his  name  shall  the  Gentiles  trust." 

I  will  ask  any  one  seriously  to  meditate  on  this  application  of 
Scripture  by  St.  Matthew,  and  to  ask  himself  what  idea  the  per- 
son who  made  it  must  have  had  of  fulfilment. 

No  one,  I  think,  will  dare  to  say  that  it  is  inappropriate.  The 
heart  and  the  conscience  at  once  recognize  the  most  wonderful 
propriety  in  it.  One  who  refused  to  let  His  deeds  of  love  and 
mercy  be  known,  who  had  power  to  heal  multitudes,  and  had 
power  to  reject  the  fame  of  healing  any,  is  just  the  kind  of  per- 
son whom  Isaiah  describes.  This  feature  of  his  character  im- 
plied a  number  of  others.  He  must  have  been  inwardly  and 
throughout  meek  and  lowly.  That  meekness,  instead  of  inter- 
fering with  his  power,  must  have  been  a  main  element  of  it.  But 
analyze  the  passage  in  Isaiah  after  the  manner  of  a  modern  pro- 
phetical interpreter.  What  becomes  of  it  ?  What  has  "  show- 
ing judgment  to  the  Gentiles  "  to  do  with  healing  the  sick  in 
Galilee  ?  What  has  "  sending  forth  judgment  unto  victory  "  to 
do  with  commanding  sick  people  not  to  make  Him  known  ? 
How  should  "  Gentiles  trust  in  his  name"  because  He  told  Jews 
not  to  proclaim  it.?  If  just  that  incident  had  to  be  fitted  to  some 
special  prediction,  a  hundred  might  have  been  chosen  that  would 


ST.    MATTHEW.  1 37 

have  matched  more  exactly.  Not  many  could  have  been  found 
so  wide  of  the  point.  Only  if  we  suppose  that  this  Person  ful- 
filled the  whole  description  of  royalty  and  gentleness  which  the 
prophet  had  sketched,  only  if  we  suppose  the  Evangelist  to  have 
felt  in  that  one  act,  how  the  whole  divine,  human  portrait  of  the 
prophet,  was  embodied  in  a  living  man,  only  if  we  go  along  with 
Him  in  saying,  "  such  a  one  as  this,  only  such  a  one  as  this,  so 
human,  so  divine,  can  rule  the  nations,  can  be  an  object  of  trust 
to  all  nations,"  shall  we  enter  in  the  slightest  degree  into  the  in- 
tention of  the  words,  or  be  able  to  acquit  them  of  frivolity.* 

CHAPTER  XHI. 

The  13th  chapter  contains  two  of  the  parables  upon  which  I 
have  commented  already,  with  two  or  three  which  are  peculiar 
to  St.  Matthew.  It  is  curiously  in  accordance  with  all  we  have 
found  in  him  thus  far,  that  though  our  Lord,  both  in  St.  Mark 
and  St.  Luke,  uses  the  words  "  that  seeing  they  might  not  see, 
and  hearing  they  might  not  understand,"  St.  Matthew  alone 
gives  the  quotation  from  Isaiah,  introducing  it  with  the  phrase, 
"in  them  is  fulfilled  the  prophecy."     Again,  at  the  34th  verse  he 

*  There  is  a  passage  in  this  chapter  which  I  have  not  spoken  of,  because  I 
do  not  understand  it.  It  is  that  in  which  it  is  said,  "  As  Jonas  was  three  days 
and  three  nights  in  the  whale's  belly;  so  shall  the  Son  of  Man  be  three  days 
and  three  nights  in  the  heart  of  the  earth."  As  there  were  not  three  days  and 
three  nights  between  the  crucifixion  and  the  resurrection  of  our  Lord,  these 
words  clearly  cannot  bear  the  interpretation  which  is  commonly  given  to 
them.  But  I  do  not  see  of  what  other  interpretation  they  are  susceptible. 
Therefore  T  leave  them.  I  shall  do  so  with  any  other  passages  which  I  feel 
puzzling  in  the  same  manner.  I  hope  everyone  will  reject -any  interpreta- 
tions of  mine  which  seem  to  them  strained  and  artificial.  I  hope  I  shall  not 
cling  to  any  of  them  merely  because  they  are  mine  and  have  seemed  plausible 
to  me.  The  more  I  read  the  Bible  and  believe  it,  the  deeper  is  my  sense  of 
the  fearful  sin  of  sacrificing  truth  in  the  slightest  degree,  for  the  sake  of  mak- 
ing out  a  case  in  favor  of  it.  God  has  confounded  many  such  tricks  which 
have  been  resorted  to  in  support  of  His  cause.  May  He  confound  mine  if  I 
have  committed  what  I  know  must  be  a  more  grievous  offence  in  His  eyes 
than  many  open  professions  of  doubt  or  unbelief. 


138  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

says,  "  All  these  things  spake  Jesus  unto  the  multitude  in  para- 
bles ;  and  without  a  parable  spake  He  not  unto  them  :  that  it 
might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  by  the  prophet,  saying,  I 
will  open  my  mouth  in  parables  ;  I  will  utter  things  which  have 
been  kept  secret  from  the  foundation  of  the  world."  Any  one 
who  will  consider  either  of  these  quotations,  will  perceive  the 
absolute  necessity  of  bringing  them  under  the  law  which  we  have 
found  applicable  to  all  previous  ones.  To  suppose  that  Isaiah 
did  not  refer  to  the  grossness  in  the  minds  of  the  people  in  his 
own  day,  would  be  to  make  the  awful  vision  of  the  Lord  of 
Hosts  which  He  saw  in  the  Temple,  and  the  mission  which  fol- 
lowed it,  a  mere  mockery.  If  the  writer  of  the  78th  Psalm  was 
not  himself  going  to  utter  and  explain  parables  and  hard  sen- 
tences, what  is  the  Psalm  about  ?  But  Isaiah's  prophecy  was  not 
fulfilled  in  his  generation  ;  the  hardness  of  heart  had  not  reached 
its  climax,  the  eyes  had  not  yet  been  closed  against  the  perfect 
light  which  might  be  poured  into  them.  The  Psalmist  dwelt 
upon  the  parables  of  his  country's  history,  uttered  the  dark  say- 
ings concerning  God's  dealings  with  them  which  their  fathers 
had  told  them  ;  he  was  able  to  see  those  dealings  in  their  con- 
nection, and  so  to  remove  part  of  the  veil  which  covered  them 
while  they  could  only  be  viewed  separately  and  in  progress.  But 
it  was  only  the  perfect  Image  of  God,  who  could  set  forth  fully 
the  parable  of  his  relations  with  man,  who  could  exhibit  His  acts 
in  perfect  order  and  sequence. 

Now^  these  two  quotations  remarkably  illustrate,  I  think,  that 
particular  aspect  of  the  parable  which  St.  Matthew  presents  to 
us.  Its  general  object,  as  we  have  seen,  is  to  bring  out  the  in- 
ward order  of  God's  kingdom  and  government  over  the  heart 
and  will  of  man,  with  its  outward  results,  as  these  are  illustrated 
by  other  parts  of  His  kingdom  and  government  in  nature  or  in 
the  common  transactions  of  men  with  each  other.  I'he  special 
calling  of  St.  Matthew  seems  to  be,  to  show  us  the  working  of 
the  divine  power  and  influence  side  by  side  with  the  working  of 
those  powers  and  influences  which  counteract  it,  and  the  ap- 
proach of  a  crisis  which  would  distinguish  and  separate  them. 


ST.    MATTHEW.  1 39 

Thus  the  parable  of  the  tares  of  the  field  is  St.  Matthew's. 
The  leaven  which  the  woman  hid  in  three  measures  of  meal, 
which  recent  commentators,  with  so  much  justification  from  the 
uniform  use  of  the  word  "  leaven  "  in  Scripture,  have  taken  to 
indicate  the  mixture  of  an  evil  and  corrupt  principle  with  the 
pure  seed  in  Christian  life  and  doctrine,  is  also  his.  It  is  he 
again  who  speaks  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  as  like  a  net  which 
was  cast  into  the  sea,  and  gathered  of  every  kind.  So  that  his 
comparisons  seem  especially  to  bear  upon  that  complete  working 
out  of  the  mystery  of  good  and  the  mystery  of  evil,  which  is  indi- 
cated by  the  phrase,  "  end  or  accomplishment  of  the  age." 

I  can  scarcely  help  seeing  this  character,  where  it  is  less  obvi- 
ous, in  the  other  two  beautiful  parables  of  this  chapter,  that  of 
the  treasure  hid  in  the  field,  and  of  the  merchantman  seeking 
goodly  pearls.  The  first  surely  describes  the  wonder  and  delight 
of  those  who  had  been  all  their  life  seeking  for  signs  and  out- 
ward things,  when  they  found  the  treasure  they  needed  close  to 
them  ;  that  the  field  which  they  had  never  cultivated,  nay,  which 
they  had  need  to  buy  as  a  strange  possession,  was  that  of  their 
own  hearts.  And  does  not  the  other  describe  as  livingly,  those 
old  philosophers  who  were  really  searching  for  goodly  pearls, 
for  shattered  portions  of  divine  and  true  wisdom,  and  who  found 
all  these  fragments  gathered  up  into  one  living  Person  ? — para- 
bles which,  though  they  may  have  various  and  infinite  personal 
applications,  yet  belong  remarkably  to  the  history  of  that  age,  to 
that  conflux  of  Jewish  and  Gentile  faiths  as  well  as  unbeliefs, 
which  was  to  mark  the  winding  up  of  it. 


CHAPTERS   XIV.  XV.  XVI. 

I  do  not  know  that  there  is  any  thing  in  these  chapters  upon 
which  I  have  not  spoken  already,  or  which  is  peculiar  to  St. 
Matthew,  except  the  incident  of  Peter  being  called  to  come  to 
Jesus  on  the  water,  and  the  memorable  words  to  the  same  Apos- 
tle •  "  Upon  this  rock  will  I  build  my  Church  ;  and  the  gates   of 


I40  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it."  The  last  subject  alone  seems 
to  be  important :  I  need  not  say  how  important  it  is. 

The  blessing  to  Peter  is  the  point  in  this  passage  to  which  all 
Romanists  would  draw  our  attention,  and  they  are  right.  All 
the  rest  of  the  passage  depends  upon  that  blessing.  Let  us  con- 
sider what  it  is.  "  Flesh  and  blood  hath  not  revealed  it  unto 
thee,  but  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven."  To  knovv  that  Jesus 
Christ  was  the  Son  of  the  living  God,  was  to  know  a  truth  which 
God  only  could  make  known  t6  a  man,  a  truth  not  for  his  flesh, 
but  for  his  spirit,  belonging  not  to  the  surface  of  his  mind,  but 
to  its  very  ground.  This  is  just  what  we  should  have  concluded 
from  our  previous  inquiries.  The  discovery  of  the  Son  of  the 
living  God  is  the  discovery  of  Him  upon  whom  all  things  and 
all  persons  rest.  All  his  miracles  and  all  his  parables  have  been 
proving  this.  He  had  fulfilled  the  meaning  of  the  old  Jewish 
kingdom,  by  coming  forth  as  that  Prince  and  Head  of  it  who 
had  been  secretly  directing  all  its  movements,  who  had  been  im- 
plied in  all  its  offices. 

How  beautifully  do  the  next  words  accord  with  these  :  "My 
Father  in  heaven  has  revealed  to  you  that  ground  which  flesh 
and  blood  could  not  make  known  to  you,  the  ground  upon  which 
your  own  life  and  all  men's  lives  stand.  Ai-id_  upon  f/iis  rock 
will  I  build  my  Church  ;  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail 
against  it."  If  the  blessing  to  Peter  had  not  preceded,  we  might 
have  been  in  doubt  about  the  meaning  and  nature  of  this  rock. 
We  might  have  said  with  the  Romanists,  "it  means  St.  Peter 
himself,"  or  with  a  great  many  Protestants,  "it  means  a  dry, 
formal  confession."  But  these  are  just  what  flesh  and  blood 
could  x^\^2\.  A  certain  man,  the  head  of  a  school  or  college  of 
Apostles,  a  certain  logical  formula  declaring  Jesus  to  be  the  Son 
of  God,  belongs  to  the  surface  of  men's  minds.  But  to  teach  a 
man  that  he  can  only  rest  upon  the  pillars  of  the  universe,  can 
only  rest  upon  the  Son  of  God  Himself,  this  is  God's  work.  A 
man  who  apprehends  this,  knows  that  he  is  standing,  not  upon 
a  shifting  sand,  but  upon  an  eternal  rock. 

"Upon  it,"   says  our   Lord,  "will  I  build  my  Church^     The 


ST.    MATTHEW.  I4I 

word  Ecclesia  has  not  yet  occurred  in  the   New  Testament.     It 
only  occurs  twice  in  the  Gospels.     That  it  should  be  used  both^ 
times  by  St.    Matthew  may   seem   strange,  considering  that  the 
word  is   so   especially  Pauline.     But  be  it  always  remembered, 
that  if  it  has  a  very  close   connection  with  the  so-called  Gentile  \ 
dispensation,  its  force   and   application   must  be   entirely  learnt  \ 
from  the  Jewish  Scriptures.     The  apostle  of  the   Gentiles  found 
the  phrase  in  use  in  the  Greek  cities,  and  applied  to  an  assembly 
called  together  by  a  herald.     But  he  took  it  in  its    etymological '\ 
sense.     It  was  a  body  called  out.     In  that  sense  it  was  expound-  \  \ 
ed  by  the  whole  history  of  the  Jewish  nation,  by  the  calling  out      \ 
of  the  first  father  of  the  family,  of  the  nation,  of  every  officer  and 
man  in  the   nation.     How  strictly  was  it  in  accordance   with  all 
St.  Matthew's  previous   teaching,  to   intimate  that  a  body  called 
out  which  these  limits  could  not  confine   or  ascertain,  was  to  be 
built  up  in  the  world,  and  that  a  rock  lying  deep  down  was  to  be 
the  foundation  of  it.     Against  a  building  so  established  the  gates 
of  Hell  could  not  prevail.     It  could  not  sink  and  be   lost  in  the 
abyss  of  darkness  and  death,  for  it  stood  upon  One  who  would 
show  that  death  and  hell  had  not  the  power  to  hold  Him. 

Now  that  Peter  should  have  the  keys  of  this  Kingdom  of 
Heaven,  that  it  should  be  given  to  him  to  open  the  gates  of  this 
Church,  and  to  admit  Gentiles  as  well  as  Jews  into  it,  might 
seem  very  wonderful  ;  but  it  is  just  what  the  history  tells  us. 
When  he  preached  on  the  day  of  Pentecost^  when  he  preached^ 
to  Cornelius,  this  honor  was  conferred  upon  him.  In  the  strict- 
est sense,  I  conceive  that  which  he  bound  on  earth  was  bound 
in  heaven,  and  that  which  he  loosed  on  earth  was  loosed  in 
heaven.  I  do  not  purpose  to  enter  into  the  consideration  of 
these  last  words,  as  they  will  meet  us  again  in  another  chapter 
of  this  Gospel.  But  I  will  say,  first,  that  I  do  not  shrink  on  the 
strength  of  them  and  of  the  rest  of  this  passage,  from  attributing 
to  St.  Peter  a  greater  privilege  and  glory  than  that  claimed  for  ) 
him  by  those  who  give  him  such  a  position  on  the  earth  or  in  the 
unseen  world,  as  would  prove  that  the  gates  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  had  never  been  opened  to  men  by  him  or  by  any  other  ;  \  fQ 


( 


142  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

secondly,  that  I  am  ready  to  test  St.  Peter's  own  position,  and 
his  Master's,  by  the  view  which  he  takes  of  both  in  his  own 
epistle 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

This  chapter  contains  one  passage  which  is  peculiar  to  St. 
Matthew,  the  account  of  the  tribute-money  which  was  demanded 
of  Peter,  and  of  the  way  in  which  he  was  desired  to  procure  it. 
It  would  be  a  natural  thought,  that  St,  Matthew's  position  as  a 
publican  led  him  to  repeat  this  story.  But  the  conclusion  would 
be  a  rash  one  ;  for  it  has  been  often  and  rightly  remarked,  that 
the  didrachma  was  not  a  payment  to  the  Roman  government, 
but  for  the  expenses  of^/rire-T^nrjole,  and  that  the  force  of  the 
question  to  St.  Peter  :  "  Of  whom  do  the  kings  of  the  earth  take 
tribute  ?  "  turns  upon  this  circumstance.  They  were  the  children 
of  Him  who  dwelt  in  the  Temple,  not  strangers,  or  bondsmen. 
According  to  this  interpretation,  St.  Matthew  would  be  the  Evan- 
gelist most  likely  to  introduce  such  a  conversation;  it  would  ac- 
cord with  the  whole  purpose  of  his  narrative  ;  it  would  be  a  new 
illustration  of  the  way  in  which  our  Lord  came  to  fulfil  all  the 
purpose  of  the  old  dispensation,  to  substantiate  the  meaning  of 
its  forms,  institutions,  holy  places.  I  am  not  sure  that  I  see  the 
special  meaning  in  the  miracle  of  the  fish  which  some  have  been 
disposed  to  give  it.  I  see  in  it  that  general  claim  of  our  Lord 
over  the  realms  of  nature,  which  He  had  in  so  many  ways  assert- 
ed. I  can  understand  its  force  in  connection  with  the  draught 
of  fishes,  and  with  other  acts  of  the  same  kind  :  but  it  may  have 
one  or  many  significations  which  I  am  not  able  to  perceive. 
Those  who  value  it  simply  because  it  seems  to  them  an  act  of 
a  more  startling  kind  than  others  which  they  read  of,  must  con- 
sider with  themselves  whether  they  will  explain  all  the  miracles 
by  this,  or  this  by  them. 


bT.    MATTHEW.  I4: 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


I  remarked  in  a  former  page,  that  the  narrative  of  the  conver- 
sation with  the  disciples  which  was  suggested  by  their  question, 
"  Who  is  the  greatest  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  ?  "  was  more 
varied  and  embraced  more  topics  i-n  St.  Matthew's  Gospel  than 
in  either  of  the  others.  The  little  child  is  common  to  all.  That 
which  is  peculiar  to  St,  Matthew  is  the  earnest  warning  respect- 
ing scandals,  the  memorable  sentence,  "  In  heaven  their  angels 
do  always  behold  the  face  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven,"  and 
the  sentence,  "It  is  not  the  will  of  your  Father  which  is  in  heav- 
en, that  one  of  these  little  ones  should  perish."  No  one  can 
fail  to  see  how  the  first  topic  is  suggested  by  the  Apostle's  ques- 
tion and  dispute.  Just  the  temper  which  they  had  been  exhibit- 
ing, the  desire  for  high  places,  the  notion  that  offices  were  prizes 
for  ambition,  not  services,  would,  in  one  form  or  other,  be  the 
cause  of  all  the  scandals  in  Christ's  kingdom-  But  where  lay 
the  test  of  its  existence,  as  well  as  the  correction  of  it?  The 
little  child,  the  humblest  human  creature,  was  dear  to  His  Father 
in  heaven.  He  did  not  look  upon  it  merely  as  a  fallen  corrupt- 
ed thing.  Its  Angel,  its  pure  original  type,  that  which  it  was 
created  to  be,  was  ever  present  with  Him,  was  ever  looking  up 
into  His  face.  To  bring  it  to  this  state  was  His  will.  It  was 
against  His  will  that  one  such  little  creature  should  lose  its  high 
and  original  glory.  For  the  Son  of  Man  was  come  to  seek  and 
to  save  that  which  was  lost,  to  fulfil  His  Father's  will,  by  bring- 
ing back  into  the  circle  of  His  holy  flock  the  one  sheep  that  had 
wandered  out  of  the  way.  How  fearful  then  those  scandals 
which  injured  any  of  those  little  ones  !  How  needful  to  cut  off 
the  right  hand,  and  pluck  out  the  right  eye  which  caused  them  ! 

Hence  the  transition  is  easy  to  the  great  law,  "  If  thy  brother 
shall  trespass  against  thee,  go  and  tell  him  his  fault  between 
thee  and  him  alone  :  if  he  shall  hear  thee,  thou  hast  gained  thy 
brother."     Here  is  the  great  law  of  the  family,  the  great  means 


144  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

of  checking  the  scandals  which  spring  up  in  it.     Bat  Christ,  the 
Son  of  God,  the  elder  Brother  of  the  human  race,  has   come  to 
establish  this  principle  of  the  family,  to   make  it  the   universal 
/   principle.     Here  then  is  the  second  occasion  on  which  St.  Mat- 
(^    thew  introduces  the  word  Ecdesia.     Before  we  were  told  of  the 
foundation  upon  which  it  rested,  now  of  the  principles  of  its  cohe- 
sion and  of  the  powers  which  are   threatening  it.     It  is  held  to- 
<   gether  by  a  law  of  forgiveness  and  mutual  sacrifice.     Only  when 
that  law  has  been   resisted  and  renounced  by  any  person  utterly 
and  in  defiance  of  all  warnings  and  manifestations  of  love,  is  his 
brother  warranted   in   casting  him   off,  in   treating   him    as  the 
proud  scornful  Jew  treated  heathen  men  and  publicans. 

Then  come  in  the  words,  "  Verily  I  say  unto  you.  Whatsoever 
ye  shall  bind  on  earth  shall  be  bound  in  heaven  :  and  whatsoever 
ye  shall  loose  on  earth  shall  be  loosed  in  heaven.  Again  I  say 
unto  you,  That  if  two  of  you  shall  agree  on  earth  as  touching 
any  thing  that  they  shall  ask,  it  shall  be  done  for  them  of  my 
Father  which  is  in  heaven."  Surely  in  our  disputes  about  the 
powers  which  may  or  may  not  be  conveyed  in  the  first  of  these 
sentences  to  the  priests  of  God,  we  have  overlooked  the  radical 
and  characteristic  principle  of  the  passage  ;  the  assertion  that 
i  heaven  and  earth  had  been  brought  by  the  Son  of  man  under 
one  law,  that  earth  was  to  have  really  a  kingdom  of  heaven  in 
the  midst  of  it.  Here  I  find  the  true  exposition  of  the  power 
and  reality  of  the  Church,  one  for  which  the  notion  of  certain 
keys  put  into  the  hands  of  a  mortal  man,  or  a  number  of  mortal 
men,  would  be  a  miserable  substitute.  The  two  clauses  should 
be  surely  taken  together,  and  taken  in  conjunction  with  the 
whole  previous  passage.  Then  they  will  illustrate  the  deep  mys- 
tery of  human  creatures  being  adopted  as  sons  of  God,  by  being 
acknowledged  as  brothers  of  Christ,  and  so  being  enabled  to  be 
perfect  as  their  Father  which  is  in  heaven  is  perfect ;  the  very 
mystery  of  the  Se'rmon  on  the  Mount,  and  which  it  seems  to  be 
St.  Matthew's  special  function  to  expound. 

Nowhere  has  he  expounded  it  more  strikingly  than  in  the  con- 
cluding  parable    of   this    chapter,  that   of   the    king  taking   an 


ST.    MATTHEW.  1 45 

account  of  his  servants.  The  grand  truth  that  God's  forgiveness 
is  the  ground  of  man's  forgiveness,  and  that  God's  forgiveness, 
free,  large,  absolute  as  it  is,  only  reaches  a  man's  heart  when  it 
subdues  his  unbrotherly  nature  and  makes  him  forgiving — a 
truth  of  which  we  are  all  most  imperfectly  conscious,  and  which 
we  are  setting  at  naught  continually  by  our  theories,  as  much  as 
we  forget  it  in  our  practice. 


CHAPTERS  XIX.     XX. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  next  chapter  of  which  I  have  not 
spoken  already.  But  the  concluding  passage  in  it  is  inseparably 
connected  with  the  parable  in  the  twentieth,  wdiich  is  peculiar  to 
St.  Matthew.  The  importance  of  that  parable  as  declaring  the 
nature  of  the  divine  kingdom,  and  of  its  rewards,  cannot  be  over- 
rated. St.  Peter  had  proved,  as  I  remarked  before,  that  the 
temptation  of  the  rich  man  is  in  another  form  the  temptation  of 
the  poor.  "What  shall  we  have  therefore"  was  the  thought  of 
the  Apostle  as  well  as  of  the  ruler.  "  Every  thing,"  is  the  an- 
swer, gifts  beyond  your  imagination  ;  but  this  is  the  greatest  : 
To  understand  that  your  calling  and  your  work  are  themselves 
inconceivable  blessings,  and  that  M^  blessing  which  follows  upon 
them,  the  hire  at  the  end  of  the  day,  is  one  of  which  you  are  not 
to  be  possessors,  but  sharers.  If  you  look  upon  it  as  something 
which  you  are  to  "  have,"  and  from  which  others  are  to  be  ex- 
cluded for  your  sake,  you  will  never  know  what  it  is  ;  the 
nature  and  meaning  of  my  Kingdom  will  be  hidden  from  you. 
And  why?  Because  the  ground  of  that  kingdom  is  the  will  of 
a  Father  whose  eye  is  good,  who  sendeth  rain  upon  the  just  and 
the  unjust.  To  be  like  Him,  to  enter  into  His  mind,  is  the  good  ; 
this  is  that  which  the  chosen  seek ;  those  who  fancy  themselves 
chosen  to  the  injury  of  their  brethren  are  only  called.  What  a 
lesson  to  the  elect  nation!  What  a  deeper,  more  awful  lesson  to 
the  elect  Church  ! 


146  LECTURE    1.       PART    11. 


CHAPTERS   XXI.  XXII. 

In  the  2ist  chapter  St.  Matthew  introduces  into  the  conversa- 
tion with  the  chief  priests  and  elders  respecting  the  authority  of 
John  the  words  :  "  But  what  think  ye  }  A  certain  man  had  two 
sons  ;  and  he  came  to  the  first,  and  said,  Son,  go  work  to-day  in 
my  vineyard.  He  answered  and  said,  I  will  not ;  but  afterward  he 
repented,  and  went.  And  he  came  to  the  second,  and  said  like- 
wise. And  he  answered  and  said,  I  go,  sir:  and  went  not. 
Whether  of  the  twain  did  the  will  of  his  father  ?  They  say  unto 
him,  The  first.  Jesus  said  unto  them,  Verily  I  say  unto  you, 
That  the  publicans  and  the  harlots  go  into  the  kingdom  of  God 
before  you.  For  John  came  unto  you  in  the  way  of  righteous- 
ness, and  ye  believed  him  not ;  but  the  publicans  and  the  harlots 
believed  him  :  and  ye,  when  ye  had  seen  it,  repented  not  afterward, 
that  ye  might  believe  him." 

These  words  I  think  are  characteristic  of  the  Evangelist.  The 
Will  of  a  Father  ;  submission  to  it  or  resistance  to  it ;  the  repent- 
ance which  acknowhdges  //  to  be  good  and  the  child's  will  to  be 
evil ;  this  is  the  subject  of  our  Lord's  revelations  as  they  pre- 
sented themselves  to  his  mind.  The  other  aspects  of  the  gospel 
are  not  lost,  but  they  are  contemplated  in  reference  and  subor- 
dination to  this  one.  In  this  way  it  is  the  fulfihnent  of  the  Law 
and  the  Prophets,  though  it  may  lead  to  the  casting  out  of  those 
who  boasted  most  of  the  Law  and  the  Prophets.  The  remark  is 
particularly  applicable  here  because  the  21st  chapter  generally 
records  precisely  those  discourses  and  parables  which  we  find  in 
the  other  Evangelists. 

The  parable  in  the  opening  of  the  2 2d  chapter,  "  the  King 
making  a  marriage  for  His  Son,"  concludes  with  the  same  moral 
as  that  in  the  20th  chapter,  *'  For  many  are  called,  but  few  chosen.'* 
And  surely  it  does  most  remarkably  expand  and  develope  the 
idea  of  the  previous  story,  though  the  occasion  which  suggested 
it,  the  persons  to  whom  it  is  addressed,  and  the  scenery  of  it,  are 


ST.    MATTHEW.  1 47 

SO  different.  The  great  reward  which  the  Father  bestows  upon 
men  is  that  they  should  come  and  rejoice  with  Him  in  the  mar- 
riage of  His  Son.  His  bridal  with  humanity  is  that  which  ex- 
presses and  fulfils  the  mind  and  will  of  the  Creator  ;  this  it  is 
which  unites  and  reconciles  him  to  His  creature.  To  give  thanks 
for  this  is  to  become  like  Him,  to  enter  into  the  joy  of  the  Lord. 
The  refusal  of  those  to  do  this  who  were  first  invited  because 
their  hearts  were  set  upon  special  possessions,  occupations,  enjoy- 
ments of  their  own,  the  calling  of  the  most  wretched  and  helpless 
who  had  nothing  of  their  own,  the  determination  of  some  even  of 
these  to  appear  in  their  own  ragged  clothing,  rather  than  to  re- 
ceive the  wedding-dress,  explain  the  nature  and  root  of  the  evil  ^ 
in  man,  that  evil  of  which  the  Jewish  pride,  distrust,  exclusive- 
ness,  were  the  great  exemplifications  in  that  day,  but  which 
belonged  equally  to  the  Gentiles,  and  would  be  manifested  in 
them  when  they  were  endued  with  the  same  privileges.  I  do  not 
doubt  for  a  moment  that  the  parable  belongs  to  that  class  of  dis- 
courses which  our  Lord  spoke  after  His  entry  to  Jerusalem,  and 
which  bore  so  directly  upon  the  sins  of  its  rulers.  But  this 
specific  character  does  not  hinder  it  from  possessing  a  universal 
character  arising  from  the  very  nature  of  the  subject,  or  an  in- 
dividual character  arisinj^  from  the  distinct  purpose  of  the  Evan- 
gelist who  records  it. 


CHAPTER  XXHL 

'The  specific,  the  universal,  and  the  individual,  all  appear  in 
the  tremendous  chapter  which  follows.  Those  who  think  of  our 
Lord's  words  as  the  announcement  of  a  more  benignant,  more 
tolerant  dispensation,  than  that  which  preceded  it,  are  utterly 
scandalized  by  the  denunciations  which  they  read  here.  How 
can  w^e  reconcile  them,  the}^ask,  with  the  tone  and  spirit  of  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount?  They  are  in  the  most  literal  and  in  the 
most  inward  harmony  with  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  "  Except 
your  righteousness  exceed  the  righteousness  of  the  Scribes  and 


148  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

Pharisees,  ye  shall  in  no  case  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 
This  was  the  maxim  of  that  discourse.  Now  we  are  told,  with 
the  same  authority  which  pronounced  that  sentence,  what  the 
righteousness  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  is.     If  Jesus  did  not 

/  speak  as  a  king  and  lawgiver,  then  the  tone  of  this  discourse  is 
new*  and  strange.  But  the  feeling  of  the  people  who  heard  Him 
when  he  opened  His  lips,  and  said,  "  Blessed  are  the  poor  in 
spirit,"  was  that  He  did  speak  as  a  King  and  Lawgiver,  as  one 
who  knew  the  very  mind  of  God,  and  could  reveal  it.  And  if  so, 
he  implicitly  declared  there  what  he  explicitly  declares  here,  that 
all  religion  which  is  not  based  upon  that  eternal  Mind  of  God, 
upon  truth  and  righteousness,  let  it  be  as  seemly  as  it  may  in  the 
sight  of  man,  let  it  clothe  itself  in  what  phrases  of  godliness  it 
pleases,  is  atheistical,  and  must  be  swept  away.  "  It  cannot 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  The  kingdom  rests  upon  a 
Revelation  of  the  eternal  Will  and  Order  of  God  ;  all  who  will 
confess  that  Will  and  Order  are  invited  to  share  its  blessedness  ; 
all  who  will  set  up  themselves  upon  any  pretext  must  be  aliens 
from  it.  The  Pharisaic  religion  was  the  enthronization  and  dei- 
fication of  self ;  that  which  was  the  evil  of  the  world  scattered 
through  many  forms  was  concentrated  in  them  ;  it  stood  face  to 
face  with  Christ,  who  came  to  offer  Himself  as  a  Sacrifice  ;  it 
denied  not  the  Son  of  Man,  but  the  Holy  Spirit  which  dwelt  in 
Him.  Our  Lord  here,  in  awful  language,  describes  its  signs,  and 
announces  its  downfall.  The  age  which  these  Pharisees  repre- 
sented would  gather  up  into  itself  the  crimes  and  sins  of  all  past 
ages  ;  against  it,  the  final  sentence,  long  delayed,  would  go 
forth. 

I  Plereby  we  see  how  these  woes  belong  to  the  time  which  is  as- 
signed for  them,  how  they  accord  with  the  parables  which  pre- 
cede, and  the  prophecy  which  follows  them.  We  see  also  how 
everlasting  the  truth  is  which  is  brought  out  for  the  condemna- 
tion of  the  rulers  of  a  particular  nation.  A  selfish  religion, 
adopting  the  names  and  forms  of  a  religion  grounded  upon  self- 
sacrifice,  must  be  the  imminent  sign  of  any  people's  misery  and 
perdition  ;  all  its  other  evils  must  have  their  root  and  their  con- 


ST.    MATTHEW.  1 49 

suiPmation  in  that.  But  nowhere  more  than  while  he  is  thus  fol- 
lowing the  course  of  the  history  and  showing  forth  its  perpetual 
application,  does  St.  Matthew  perform  his  own  distinct  function. 
The  denunciations  of  our  Lord  are  the  fulfilment  of  all  the  de- 
nunciations of  former  prophets  ;  the  execution  of  them  would  be 
the  fulfilment  of  all  past  judgments.  The  establishment  of  His 
kingdom  would  be  the  fulfilment  of  all  those  reformations  and 
restorations  which  had  cheered  the  ancient  seer  under  the  over- 
whelming sense  of  the  sins  of  the  people  and  its  rulers,  under  the 
prospect  of  approaching  captivity  and  desolation. 


CHAPTERS  XXIV.  XXV. 

I  have  commented  very  largely  upon  the  next  chapter.  I  have 
only  to  ask  that  you  would  read  it  once  more  in  connection  with 
the  one  I  have  just  considered,  and  with  the  25th. 

That  chapter  begins  with  the  words,  "  Theii  shall  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  be  likened  unto  ten  virgins,  which  took  their  lamps, 
and  went  forth  to  meet  the  bridegroom."  I  must  take  the  "  then" 
literally,  and  determine  it  according  to  the  prophecy  respecting 
the  Temple.  "  Then  when  the  tribulation  of  these  last  days 
comes,  wdien  Jerusalem  is  compassed  about  with  armies,  when 
the  abomination  of  desolation  is  set  up  in  the  holy  place — shall 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  be  likened  unto  ten  virgins."  And  thus, 
I  think,  we  gain  from  the  parable  a  new  light  upon  the  words 
which  have  caused  so  much  perplexity  in  the  prophecy.  The 
coming  of  the  bridegroom  in  the  one  is,  of  course,  identical  with 
the  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man  in  the  other.  The  King  has  made 
a  marriage  for  His  Son.  He  comes  to  claim  his  bride.  If  the 
passing  away  of  the  Old  Dispensation  meant  this ;  if  the  shaking 
not  of  earth  only,  but  also  of  heaven — not  of  polities  alone  which 
claimed  a  human  origin,  but  of  one  which  claimed,  and  had  a 
right  to  claim,  a  divine  origin — was  a  proof  that  the  Son  of  Man 
had  come  to  assert  His  fellowship  with  humanity,  we  can  under- 
stand why  the  day  and  hour  of  His  coming  should  be  unknown. 


150  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

why  He  should  be  said  to  come  as  a  thief  in  the  night,  even 
though  the  outward  tokens  of  His  judgment  should  be  most 
startling  and  conspicuous,  though  the  effects  of  it  should  be  ap- 
parent through  all  ages  to  come. 

And  this  is  just  what  the  parable  of  the  virgins  seems  to  inti- 
',  mate.  The  kingdom  of  heaven — the  divine  society — would  re- 
.^  semble  ten  virgins,  five  of  whom  were  wise,  and  five  were  foolish. 
Most  commentators,  I  believe,  have  supposed  these  virgins  to  be 
churches  ;  few  have  doubted  that  the  oil  means  here,  as  else- 
where, the  Spirit,  or  the  spiritual  life.  Moreover  there  is  much 
uniformity  in  the  interpretation  of  the  story  as  denoting  that  cer- 
tain churches  would  have  the  general  outward  preparations  for 
Christ's  coming,  scriptures  and  ordinances  as  lights  to  their  feet ; 
and  that  some  sudden  convulsion  having  startled  them  into  the 
belief  that  His  coming  was  near,  they  would  all  begin  to  trim 
these  lamps,  to  feel  the  necessity  of  using  them  for  the  purpose 
for  which  they  were  given  ;  but  that  the  foolish  would  then  dis- 
cov^er  their  incapacity  for  using  them,  and  would  be  eager  for  all 
second-hand  helps  ;  would  at  last  be  forced  to  tiie  discovery  that 
unless  they  went  to  them  that  sold,  and  bought  for  themselves, — 
|i  unless  they  had  a  direct  personal  apprehensien  of  Him  in  whom 
they  professed  to  believe, — they  could  not  meet  Him.  I  believe 
I  am  not  departing  in  the  least  from  the  ordinary  rubric  of  com- 
mentators when  I  adopt  this  explanation.  All  I  wish  is  that  it 
should  be  brought  out  more  distinctly  in  connection  with  the 
leading  idea  of  the  bridegroom.  And  then  I  think  that  the  sense 
of  it  will  be  that  certain  churches  would  be  really  waiting  for  the 
divine  King  who  had  declared  Himself  as  the  root  of  humanity, 
as  the  ground  of  their  personal  and  their  social  life,  as  the  only 
bond  of  their  unity,  and  would  therefore  find  Him  in  the  truest, 
most  living  sense,  not  as  their  King  only,  but  as  the  Lord  of 
Man  ;  that  the  others,  expecting  some  mere  outw^ard  exhibition 
of  Him,  such  as  the  adulterous  Jewish  generation  sought  after, 
would  find  that  they  had  grasped  a  shadow,  would  lose  what  they 
had  possessed  before,  would  become  apostate.  "  Verily  I  say 
unto  you,  I  know^  you  not."    The  five  virgins  would  become  parts 


c 


ST.    MATTHEW. 


151 


of  the  new  and  living  Jerusalem  ;  the  others  would  sink  into  the 
corrupt   mass  of  Judaism   or  heathenism.     Such  would  be  the 
specific  force  of  the  parable  exactly  answering  to  the  chronology 
which  our  Lord  gives  it.     But  in  that  specific  application  is  in- 
volved one  of  the  perpetually-renewing  force  for  all  ages  of  the  ,, 
Christian  Church,  specially  for  its  last  age.     St.  Matthew,  as  the    • 
Evangelist  who  sets  forth  the  fulfilment  of  the  Old  Dispensation  *• 
in  the  revelation  of  man's  filial  relation  to  God,  and  conjugal  re- 
lation to  the  divine  King,  was  particularly  likely  to  record  this 
parable. 

A  question  was  likely  to  arise  in  the  minds  of  the  disciples  who 
heard  it.  Had  all  these  virgins  equal  advantages  ?  Could  the 
foolish  be  equally  prepared  with  the  wise .?  If  it  was  spiritual 
treasures  in  which  the  former  were  deficient,  are  not  these  em- 
phatically divine  gifts  .?  Were  not  they  withheld  from  those  who 
were  without  oil,  and  who  went  to  borrow  it  ?  The  answer  lies 
in  the  parable  of  the  Talents.  It  is  not  separated  from  that  of 
the  virgins,  as  our  translators  have  separated  it  by  the  formal 
words,  "  For  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  unto ;  "  words  which 
though  they  are  the  proper  and  ordinary  introduction  to  the  par- 
able generally,  appear  to  be  awkward  and  out  of  place  in  this 
instance.  The  bridegroom  in  his  absence  did  not  leave  any  of 
those  whom  he  was  afterwards  to  claim,  without  those  inner  gifts 
and  endowments  which  were  necessary  that  they  might  receive 
him  on  his  return.  The  treasures  might  be  apparently  unequal 
because  the  tasks  and  temptations  of  those  to  whom  they  were 
committed  were  unequal.  But  all  were  adequate,  all  might  be 
improved.  They  were  precisely  of  that  nature  and  quality  that 
they  could  be  improved.  They  were  not  absolute  gifts,  but  gifts 
to  be  traded  with.  And  the  difference  between  one  and  another 
arises  primarily  from  the  neglect  of  this  trading,  ultimately  from 
distrust  in  the  owner,  from  believing  him  to  be  a  hard  master, 
"  reaping  where  he  had  not  sown,  and  gathering  where  he  had  f 
not  strewed  ; "  instead  of  a  gracious  master,  who  desires  that  his  f 
servants  should  share  his  work  and  enter  into  his  joy.  The 
principle  of  this  parable  then,  as  of  the  last,  is  deep  and  universal. 


152  LECTURE    1.       PART    II. 

But  if  the  Apostles  needed  the  former  for  their  own  time,  to  ex- 
plain what  was  coming  upon  them,  and  how  they  were  to  act, 
they  needed  also  this  for  the  same  reason.  It  was  a  lesson  for 
the  world  because  it  was  first  a  lesson  for  them.  There  were 
two  aspects  of  the  lesson,  one  we  shall  find  is  brought  out  by  St. 
Luke,  one  by  St.  Matthew.  That  with  which  we  are  especially 
concerned  here,  is  the  lesson  concerning  the  evenness  and 
righteousness  of  God's  dealings,  the  assertion  that  the  same  joy 
is  intended  for  all  who  do  not  distrust  their  divine  employer,  but 
are  ready  to  work  for  Him  and  with  Him  in  his  spirit. 

Then  follows  the  memorable  passage,  beginning,  "  When  the 
Son  of  man  shall  come  in  His  glory."  I  have  very  few  remarks 
to  make  upon  it ;  for  I  do  not  in  this  or  in  any  case  desire  to 
propose  new  interpretations.  I  only  desire  that  we  may  consider 
more  earnestly  what  we  mean  by  our  ordinary  interpretations, 
that  they  may  become  less  shadowy  and  more  real,  that  they  may 
bear  upon  our  lives,  and  may  not  be  merely  a  collection  of  loose 
fragmentary  notions  inconsistent  with  the  letter  and  tenor  of 
Scripture,  inconsistent  with  themselves.  Every  one  has  a  kind 
of  dream  respecting  a  great  judgment  in  which  the  Son  of  Man 
shall  sit  on  the  throne  of  his  glory.  Let  him  cherish  that  dream, 
let  him  suffer  no  thoughts  or  speculations  of  any  one  to  disturb 
it,  no  not  even  the  words  of  Scripture  itself.  But  let  him  labor 
hard  that  it  may  be  more  than  a  dream.  Let  him  not  suffer  so 
awful  a  truth  as  it  must  involve  to  be  lost  in  phrases  about  "  a 
great  assize,"  in  very  vulgar  and  yet  very  vague  impressions  bor- 
rowed from  the  scenery  of  English  courts  of  justice,  or  even  from 
the  pictures  of  great  artists.  If  any  of  these  associations  are 
helpful  in  bringing  to  our  minds  an  actual  Judge  of  quick  and 
dead.  One  to  whom  the  secrets  of  hearts  are  open,  we  ought  not 
to  discard  them.  They  must  have  a  relation  to  these  realities  ; 
there  is  something  in  them  which  is  symbolical  of  them.  But  it 
is  a  matter  of  life  and  death,  a  matter  infinitely  concerning  the 
sincerity  of  our  minds,  that  we  should  take  all  possible  pains  to 
find  out  what  the  relation  is,  how  the  thing  symbolized  is  con- 
nected with  the  symbol.     Let  us  confess  to  ourselves  plainly  and 


ST.    MATTHEW.  153 

honestly  that  we  have  let  the  one  stand  for  the  other;  that  we 
have  talked  of  a  judgment  and  tried  to  frighten  ourselves  and 
others  with  it,  bui  have  not  believed  jn  it  ;  that  it  hangs  about  us 
as  a  terrible  phantom  which  we  generally  wish  to  get  rid  of;  that 
the  thought  of  it  inspires  us  with  any  thing  but  the  substantial 
abiding  comfort  and  joy  which  it  caused  to  psalmists,  and 
prophets,  and  apostles.  And  when  we  have  come  to  that  humi- 
liating confession,  let  us  turn  to  this  passage  which  must  be  the 
greatest  guide  of  all  to  a  right  and  practical  understanding  of  the 
subject.  And  if  we  do  believe  that  the  Son  of  man  is  Himself 
best  able  to  tell  us  what  the  sitting  on  the  throne  of  his  glory 
and  the  gathering  before  Him  of  all  nations  are,  let  us  listen  to 
his  own  teaching  ;  let  us  think  that  when  He  utters  the  words, 
"  Inasmuch  as  you  did  it  to  one  of  the  least  of  these,  ye  did  it  to 
me,"  He  proclaimed  that  which  is  the  very  truth  of  human  exist- 
ence, that  with  which  it  must  be  eternal  life  to  be  in  conformity, 
and  eternal  death  to  be  at  variance.  He  actually  is  one  with 
every  man.  He  has  come  to  proclaim  that  He  is  by  His  incar- 
nation and  His  death.  He  did  judge  the  old  world  according  to 
that  law.  However  little  we  may  understand  at  present  the 
course  and  method  of  His  judgment,  we  must,  if  we  accept  Scrip- 
ture as  the  interpreter  of  history,  think  that  it  was  this  law  and 
no  other  which  decided  the  condition  of  every  nation  and  race. 
And  in  proportion  as  we  feel  assured  that  this  was  the  case  in 
every  preparatory  judgment  and  in  the  final  judgment  of  the  old 
world,  we  shall  feel  that  it  is  the  law,  which  having  been  affirmed 
in  the  great  visitation  upon  Jerusalem,  has  guided  the  treatment 
of  every  nation  and  of  every  man  since  ;  the  law  which  is  judg- 
ing us  now  ;  the  law  which  will  judge  us  in  the  last  day.  To  us 
if  we  hold  fast  this  truth  and  try  to  Uve  by  it,  that  judgment  at 
the  last  day  will  be  no  idle  fiction  ;  not  a  pageant  with  which  we 
shall  dare  to  trifle,  but  a  living  eternal  verity,  which  it  would  be 
the  loss  of  all  our  hopes  for  ourselves  or  for  our  race,  of  all  our 
faith  in  God,  to  part  with. 


154  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 


CHAPTERS  XXVI.  XXVII.  XXVIII. 

On  the  first  two  of  these  chapters  I  have  dwelt  at  great  length. 
In  the  last  it  is  an  important  characteristic  of  St.  Matthew,  that 
he  speaks  only  of  the  Resurrection,  not  of  the  Ascension.  The 
one  is  the  fulfilment  of  all  the  meaning  of  the  Old  Dispensation  ; 
the  other  is  the  ground  and  commencement  of  the  New.  But  it 
would  not  be  the  fulfilment  of  the  past  if  it  did  not  bring  forth 
the  Son  of  David  and -the  Son  of  Abraham,  saying,  "'  All  power  is 
given  unto  me  in  heaven  and  in  earth  ; "  if  the  promise,  "  in  thee 
and  in  thy  seed  all  the  families  of  the  earth  shall  be  blessed," 
had  not  been  translated  into  the  words  "  teach  all  the  nations ;  " 
if  the  name  of  the  I  Am,  which  was  the  ground  of  the  National 
polity,  had  not  been  expanded  into  the  Name  of  "  the  Father, 
the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,"  the  foundation  of  the  universal 
Family. 


ST.  MARK. 


It  is  a  common  notion  tliat  the  writer  of  the  second  Gospel 
deliberately  undertook  to  make  an  abridgement  of  the  first.  The 
reader  observes  that  the  same  events  are  recorded  in  both,  appa- 
rently in  the  same  way,  that  one  is  shorter  than  the  other,  that 
various  parables  and  discourses  which  add  considerably  to  the 
beauty  and  fulness  of  St.  Matthew  are  passed  over  by  St.  Mark, 
that  his  story  is  rapid,  that  he  dwells  on  incidents  more  than 
words.  What  more  natural  than  the  supposition  that  he  was  se- 
lecting what  seemed  to  him  the  capital  points  in  the  life  of  Jesus, 
discarding  accessories  ? 

The  difficulties  in  this  supposition  increase  at  every  step  for  a 
reader  who  bestows  upon  the  Gospel  the  same  kind  of  attention 
that  he  would  think  necessary  in  studying  any  ordinary  document. 
All  careful  observers  are  struck  with  the  vividness  of  St.  Mark's 
style  ;  the  incidents  which  he  relates  are  never  merely  chronicled; 
they  are  surrounded  with  all  the  circumstances  which  rendered 
them  impressive  to  bystanders.  His  desire  of  brevity  does  not 
prevent  him  from,  giving  stories  of  the  same  kind,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  two  miracles  of  the  loaves.  He  often  introduces  into  his 
narratives  particulars  which  an  abridger,  aiming  merely  at  con- 
densation, would  have  been  certain  to  reject,  if  he  had  found 
them  in  his  original.  These  remarks  are  so  obvious  that  I  can- 
not wonder  that  some  of  those  who  in  former  days  were  busy  in 
the  search  for  a  Gospel  out  of  which  the  rest  might  have  been 
composed,  should  often  have  felt  inclined  to  adopt  the  opposite 
notion  to  that  which  I  am  considering,  and  to  fix  upon  St.  Mark's 
history  as  answering  nearly,  though  not  exactly,  to  their  concep- 
tion of  the  primitive  one. 


156  LECTURE    I.       PART    11. 

The  modern  school  very  properly  withdraws  our  thoughts  from 
all  speculations  of  this  kind,  and  directs  us  to  the  actual  books 
which  we  possess,  urging  us  to  look  manfully  at  the  contents  of 
them,  and  observe  their  great  and  startling  differences. 

Attention  to  that  precept  compels  me  to  notice,  not  merely  an 
accidental  departure  here  and  there,  in  St.  Mark  from  St.  Mat- 
thew's Gospel,  but  an  omission  of  that  which  we  have  found  to 
be  most  characteristic  of  him.  It  is  not  that  he  omits  a  parable, 
or  passes  over  a  memorable  discourse  ;  it  is  that  the  feeling 
which  possessed  the  mind  of  St.  Matthew  and  colored  all  his 
language,  is  not  apparently  present  at  all  in  the  same  manner  to 
St.  Mark.  If  phrases,  allusions,  quotations,  repeated,  and  as  it 
were  unintentional,  indicate  any  thing,  it  must  have  been  a  pre- 
dominant purpose  in  St.  Matthew  to  speak  of  the  Gospel  as  the 
fulfilment  of  that  which  had  preceded  it  ;  if  an  absence  of  such 
phrases,  allusions,  and  quotations,  in  the  very  places  where  the 
other  had  introduced  them,  is  indicative  of  any  thing,  this  was  not 
the  predominant  purpose  of  St.  Mark.  If  we  suppose  he  had  St. 
Matthew's  narrative  before  him,  the  fact  is  all  the  more  remark- 
able ;  no  dream  of  shortening  the  previous  history  can  have  sug- 
gested such  omissions. 

Let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  the  whole  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
is  wanting  in  St.  Mark.  What  a  monstrous  omission  for  an  epito- 
mizer  who  was  choosing  out  the  important  parts  of  the  divine 
history  !  What  a  natural  and  necessary  omission  for  one  who  did 
not  design  to  bring  out  the  Fatherly  kingdom  as  that  which 
Christ  had  come  to  reveal  ;  who  had  another  object  which  his 
readers  could  not  have  perceived,  if  he  had  dwelt  upon  that  topic 
which  St.  Matthew  had  so  fully  illustrated.  I  have  already  said 
what  I  believe  his  object  was.  I  took  the  first  verse  of  his  Gos- 
pel as  the  text  of  this  whole  lecture,  because  I  felt  that  it  an- 
nounced more  distinctly  than  any  one  I  could  find  in  St.  Matthew 
or  St.  Luke,  that  which  was  common  to  all  the  Evangelists.  But 
it  may  be  common  and  special  both.  It  may  be  absolutely 
necessary  that  there  should  be  an  Evangelist  who  sets  forth 
Christ  Himself  distinctly,  simply  in  His  own  personality,  as  the 


ST.    MARK.  I  57 

Kiirj^  of  the  nation,  as  the  Lord  of  man  ;  and  who,  that  he  may- 
do  that  work  properly,  does  not  set  forth  that  mystery  of  his  re- 
lation to  the  Father  which  was  implied  in  these  acts,  with  the 
same  prominence  and  distinctness.  We  may  find,  when  we  come 
to  consider  the  history  of  the  Apostolical  Church,  that  there  was 
a  class  of  persons  occupying  a  middle  position  between  the  Jew- 
ish and  Gentile  world,  a  set  of  persons  whh  whom  St.  Mark  is 
connected  by  a  respectable  tradition,  for  whom  such  a  treatment 
of  the  subject  was  peculiarly  necessary,  whose  most  earnest  wants 
would  not  have  been  satisfied,  who  would  not  have  felt  that  the 
meaning  of  Judaism  was  fulfilled  or  that  its  connection  with  the 
outward  world  could  be  established,  who  would  not  have  beenj 
delivered  from  some  of  their  most  dangerous  tendencies,  unless 
the  Gospel  of  the  Son  of  God  had  been  presented  to  them  in  this 
simple  and  direct  shape.  We  may  find,  as  we  go  on  to  later 
Church-history,  that  as  a  matter  of  fact  this  view  of  the  Gospel 
has,  to  the  exclusion  of  almost  any  other,  affected  the  condition 
of  a  whole  age,  has  been  the  cause  of  all  its  strength  ;  its  exclu- 
siveness  and  corruption,  the  source  of  all  its  weakness.  This  is 
not  the  time  to  enter  upon  either  of  these  subjects ;  I  merely 
allude  to  them  in  order  to  get  a  hearing  for  what  I  say,  and  to 
induce  you  to  study  the  Gospel  of  St.  Mark  with  this  thought 
upon  your  mind.  You  will  not  expect  me  to  go  minutely  over 
ground  which  I  have  previously  travelled.  I  shall  only  add  a 
few  more  hints  to  those  I  have  given  you  already,  which  may  en- 
able 3'ou  to  feel  that  St.  Mark  carries  out  as  much  by  his  omis- 
sions as  his  statements,  by  his  differences  from  St.  Matthew  as 
by  his  resemblances  to  him,  the  intention  which  he  announces  so 
simply  and  distinctly  in  the  opening  of  his  Gospel. 

In  the  first  chapter  we  are  told  nothing  of  a  son  of  David  or 
a  son  of  Abraham.  There  is  no  genealogy,  no  account  of  a  di- 
vine conception.  We  hear  nothing  of  a  journey  into  Egypt, 
nothing  of  kings  coming  from  the  East  to  worship  Christ,  or  of 
children  murdered  for  His  sake.  The  beginning  of  the  Gospel 
is  John  preaching  in  the  wilderness ;  announcing  that  one  is 
coming  after  him  who  is  mightier  than  himself,  because  He  will 


158  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

baptize  with  the  Holy  Ghost ;  baptizing  that  mightier  one,  who, 
as  he  ascends  out  of  the  water,  is  declared  to  be  the  beloved 
Son.  The  Temptation  is  very  shortly  treated.  It  could  not  be 
passed  over ;  but  since  the  details  of  it  given  by  St.  Matthew 
illustrate  principally  the  relation  of  the  Son  to  the  Father,  His 
trust  and  dependance,  they  were  wonderfully  adapted  to  the  ob- 
ject of  that  Evangelist ;  they  would  have  disturbed  the  cohe- 
rency of  St.  Mark's,  and  made  his  aim  less  intelligible.  I  desire 
to  avoid  refinements,  but  I  cannot  think  the  introduction  of  the 
words,  "and  He  was  with  the  wild  beasts,"  by  St.  Mark,  is  insig- 
nificant. I  believe  that  he  wishes  especially  to  exhibit  the  Son 
of  God  as  the  ruler  of  nature,  as  the  Person  in  whom  the  origi- 
nal grant  of  dominion  to  man  was  fulfilled.  And  since  the 
Temptation  is  the  introduction  to  the  ministry,  it  was  fitting  that 
this  view  of  His  character  and  office,  as  well  as  that  of  His  per- 
fect obedience,  should  be  fullv  set  forth. 


This  hint  once  given,  will  enable  you  I  think,  not  indeed  to 
discover  in  St.  Mark  what  you  had  not  seen  in  him  before,  but 
to  account  for  your  own  impressions  respecting  him.  You  will 
find  him  recording  every  exercise  of  our  Lord's  power  distinctly 
and  minutely  ;  making  us  more  conscious  than  the  other  evan- 
gelists of  the  wonder  which  the  on-lookers  felt  at  a  doctrine 
which  was  connected  with  dominion  over  unclean  spirits;  insist- 
ing upon  the  Son  of  Man's  lordship  over  the  sabbath-day ;  touch- 
ing upon  the  call  of  the  disciples  and  the  ordaining  of  the  Apos- 
tles as  instances  of  His  authority ;  recording  parables,  such  as 
"  the  sower,"  "  the  man  casting  seed  into  the  ground,"  "  the  mus- 
tard-seed," "  the  vine-dressers,"  which  describe  His  personal  in- 
fluence and  mysterious  government ;  omitting  nothing  which  can 
illustrate  the  nature  of  His  kingdom  and  His  relation  to  human 
beings,  the  doubts  which  were  felt  respecting  the  possibility  that 
such  power  should  belong  to  Him  who  was  called  the  carpenter's 
son,  the  demonstration  that  it  did  belong  to  Him,  and  that  He 
could  confer  it  upon  men,  and  that  they  would  be  able  hereafter 


ST.    MARK.  159 

to  exercise  dominion  in  His  name  under  Him  ;  passing  by  every 
tiling  which  does  not  serve  to  bring  this  truth  into  light,  or  to 
make  his  readers  more  sensible  of  it.  While  therefore  there  is 
the  most  strong  external  resemblance  between  him  and  St.  Mat- 
thew, there  is,  I  conceive,  a  lively  and  continual  contrast  in  the 
design  and  in  the  effect  of  their  narratives.  The  chapters  which 
respectively  conclude  the  two  Gospels,  display  the  difference  per- 
haps more  completely  than  any  others.  "  All  power  is  given  to 
Christ  in  heaven  and  earth,"  the  disciples  are  to  go  and  baptize 
the  nations ;  Thus  St.  Matthew  winds  up  his  narrative.  St. 
Mark  adds,  "  And  these  signs  shall  follow  them  that  believe.  In 
my  name  they  shall  cast  out  devils,  they  shall  speak  with  new 
tongues,  they  shall  take  up  serpents ;  and  if  they  drink  any 
deadly  thing  it  shall  not  hurt  them.  They  shall  lay  hands  on 
the  sick,  and  they  shall  recover."  The  first  words  speak  of  the 
reconstitution  of  humanity,  of  man  brought  back  into  submission 
and  communion  with  God.  The  second  speak  of  new  powers, 
endowments,  energies,  with  which  the  witnesses  for  this  redeemed 
constitution  should  be  invested,  that  they  testify  of  Christ,  the 
healer  of  the  sick,  the  caster  out  of  devils,  as  the  real  Lord  of 
the  race.  St.  Mark  therefore  cannot  stop  where  St.  Matthew 
stops,  at  the  fact  of  a  Resurrection,  the  fulfilment  of  all  past 
hopes  and  aspirations  :  he  alludes  to  the  Ascension — though  he 
but  alludes  to  it.  Another  evangelist  was  needed  to  set  forth 
the  mystery  of  that  fact  and  its  relation  to  the  after  condition  of 
the  universe. 


ST.    LUKE. 


CHAPTER    I. 

This  Evangelist  is  St.  Luke.  No  one  has  ever  doubted  that 
the  two  books  in  the  New  Testament  which  are  attributed  to 
him,  stand  in  the  closest  connexion  with  each  other.  He  ad- 
dresses them  to  the  same  person,  whoever  that  person  may  have 
been  ;  he  speaks- of  the  first  as  '•  the  treatise  of  that  which  Jesus 
began  to  do  and  to  teach  until  the  day  that  he  was  taken  up." 

The  introduction  to  his  Gospel  has  given  rise  to  many  disqui- 
sitions ;  I  question  whether  we  are  yet  alive  to  its  full  impor- 
tance. "  The  things  in  which  Theophilus  had  been  catechised," 
"  the  things  which  are  most  surely  believed  among  us,"  must  all 
have  had  relation  to  the  person  of  Christ.  The  theology  of  the 
i(  Apostolic  Church  must  have  had  a  living  centre.  It  was  m 
\  Christ.  Only  through  the  knowledge  of  what  He  did  and  what 
He  was,  could  its  meaning  be  drawn  out.  Hence  an  Evangelist 
in  every  application  of  the  word  must  be  one  who  sets  forth  the 
life  of  Christ.  Next  it  is  clearly  assumed  in  this  introduction, 
that  one  who  had  not  been  an  eye-witness  himself  of  our  Lord's 
doings  upon  earth,  might  be  just  as  com  Detent  to  be  an  Evan- 
gelist as  one  who  had  seen  Him  and  talked  with  Him.  There 
might  be  a  number  of  facts  still  unrecorded  concerning  Him. 
But  it  was  not  the  function  of  the  Evangelist  chiefly  to  look  for 
these,  but  to  follow  up  those  which  were  admitted,  which  had 
become  the  common-places  of  the  Church's  faith,  in  order  that 
their  full  purpose  might  be  brought  to  light,  that  they  might  be 
known  in  the  length  and  breadth  cf  their  human  and  divine  sig- 


ST.    LUKE.  l6l 

nificance.  What  St.  Luke  promises,  is  not  something  new,  but 
an  orderly  narrative,  one  that  should  exhibit  the  facts  so  cohe- 
rently and  harmoniously  that  the  character  which  was  disclosed 
by  them,  their  relation  to  the  past  and  present  and  future,  might 
be  more  clearly  and  livelily  apprehended.  He  speaks  of  many 
having  undertaken  the  same  task  ;  he  does  not  disparage  their 
works  or  their  qualifications ;  he  merely  asserts  his  own.  All 
would  be  tried  in  the  fire.  That  which  was  intended  to  the  ex- 
position of  the  Divine  Mind,  that  which  it  concerned  men  to 
possess,  would  come  through  it  and  would  remain  a  possession 
for  ever. 

If  you  have  followed  what  has  been  said  of   St.  Matthew,  the 
nature  of  the  contrast  bet\veen  his  gospel  and  St.  Luke's  will  at 
once  be  discovered  by  their  accounts  of  our  Lord's  conception 
and  birth.     In  St.    Matthew,  the  birth   of  a   Son   of  God  by  a 
woman,  married  to  an  actual  heir  of  the  house  of  David,  but  with- 
out his  intervention,  was  th^  fulfilment  of  that  line  of  births  from 
Isaac  downwards,  each  of  which  had  attested  God  to  be  the  au- 
thor and  preserver  of  the   race.     In    St.  Luke,  the  differe?ice  be-  . 
tween  the  Old  Dispensation  and  that  which  is  to  come  out  of  it  ' 
is  illustrated   by  the  parallel  stories  of  Zachariah  and   of  Mary.  / 
John  is  born  of  a  father  well  stricken  in  age  and  a  barren  mother, 
as  Isaac  had  been.  It  is  attested  in  the  case  of  the  last  and  great- 
est of  the  forerunners  of  the  Prophet  and  King,  as  it  was  in  the 
case  of  Samuel  the  first  of  them,  that  birth  is  of  divine  power,  )> 
not    of   human   will.     But  still   John   is    the   child   of  a   man  ; 
whereas   that  holy  thing  which   is  born  of  Mary  is  to  be  called  > 
the  Son  of  God. 

Whether  these  chapters  are  received  as  genuine  or  rejected  as 
spurious,  there  can  be  no  question  that  this  contrast  was  present 
to  the  mind  of  the  writer.  It  is  one  cause  of  the  suspicion  which 
attaches  to  them,  in  the  judgment  of  modern  critics,  that  the  in- 
tention is  so  obvious.  "  How  clearly,"  they  exclaim,  "  we  see,  not 
the  purpose  of  an  historian  to  tell  facts,  but  of  a  theologian  to 
bring  out  a  certain  artificial  theory."  Whether  it  is  an  artificial 
theory,  or  the  revelation  of  a  Divine  principle  apart  from  which 


l62  LECTURE    I.       PART    11. 

the  facts  in  the  life  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  would  not  mean  any 
thing  or  account  for  any  thing,  is  precisely  the  question  at  issue 
— one  which  I  cannot  stop  to  discuss  at  each  particular  point  of 
the  narrative,  without  repeating  myself  most  unwarrantably  or 
anticipating  the  result  of  the  whole  investigation.  What  I  am 
concerned  with  now  is  the  connexion  of  these  chapters  with  the 
rest  of  St.  Luke's  Gospel,  and  the  evidence  which  they  furnish 
as  to  the  intent  of  it. 

The  adjuncts  of  the  two  stories  must  not  be  overlooked. 
There  is  in  both  Gospels  a'n  allusion  to  Angels.  We  might  have 
supposed  that  it  would  be  most  definite  in  that  which  is  essen- 
tially and  characteristically  Hebrew.  On  the  contrary,  we  are 
merely  told  in  St.  Matthew  that  '*  the  Angel  "  of  the  Lord  ap- 
peared to  Joseph  in  a  dream.  In  St.  Luke  we  have  the  name  of 
an  angel,  "I  am  Gabriel,  that  stand  in  the  presence  of  God." 
U  All  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament  speak  of  Angels,  and  as- 
sume the  fact  of  communications  between  the  visible  and  the 
invisible  world.  But  not  till  the  prophet  Daniel  are  the  visitants 
described  by  names,  or  any  specific  office  assigned  to  them. 
The  change  in  Jewish  feeling  on  this  subject  after  the  captivity 
is  often  noticed,  and  is  of  course  assigned  to  Chaldaean  influ- 
ences. That  mode  of  accounting  for  it  seems  to  me  vague  and 
unsatisfactory  ;  but  I  have  no  wish  to  throw  it  aside  as  if  it  were 
worth  nothing,  far  less  to  overlook  the  fact  which  it  seeks  to  in- 
terpret. 

Supposing  the  Captivity  to  be,  as  the  Jewish  Scriptures 
throughout  assume  it  to  be,  a  most  striking  epoch  in  the  history, 
(no  less  important,  St.  Matthew  would  teach  us,  than  that  of 
Abraham  or  of  David,)  one  must  believe  it  to  be  a  step  in  the 
(^Divine  revelation,  as  each  of  these  was.  The  book  of  Daniel 
would  seem  to  show  us,  the  after  history  confirms  the  announce- 
ment, that  it  was  a  time  when  prophecy  would  be  sealed  up, 
when  the  records  of  the  old  world  would  be  gathered  together 
and  would  become  a  complete  volume.  This  book  would  teach 
us  also  that  the  time  of  Nebuchadnezzar  or  of  Cyrus  was  the 
commencement  of   a  great  period  for  all  the   nations,  each   of 


ST.     LUKE.  163 

which  had  its  own  appointed  place  in  the  Divine  order  or  gov- 
ernment. It  is  in  connexion  with  these  nations  that  he  intro- 
duces Angels  ;  each  country  is  said  to  be  under  the  government 
of  some  one.  That  there  is  a  very  close  relation  between  this 
belief  and  the  belief  of  tutelary  divinities  which  prevailed 
throughout  the  heathen  world,  there  can  be  no  question.  At 
the  same  time,  one  can  hardly  understand  how  a  Jew  could  ac- 
knowledge the  absolute  government  of  the  Lord  of  all  over  every 
nation,  together  with  the  specific  government  over  his  own,  un- 
less he  had  some  such  faith.  "  We  are  under  the  everlasting 
I  AM  :  other  nations  He  has  committed  to  mediate  rulers, — to 
Angels" — this  was  the  opinion  which  a  Jew  would  most  naturally 
entertain.  Yet  it  may  have  been  developed  in  a  period  in  which 
the  streams  of  Jewish  and  Gentile  history  were  tending  to  be- 
come confluent.  It  was  in  no  sense  a  graft  of  Gentile  notions 
upon  a  Jewish  stem  ;  it  may  have  been  a  most  important  exposi- 
tion of  new  facts  by  the  application  of  an  old  principle  ;  an  in- 
terpretation of  Gentile  history  and  mythology  by  the  old  Jewish 
truth. 

That  the  coming  of  Jesus  Christ  should  be  announced  by  some 
messenger  from  the  invisible  world,  is  a  reasonable  or  an  incred- 
ible fact,  precisely  according  to  the  belief  which  we  have  respect- 
ing His  office  and  character.  If  he  were  the  King  of  Men,  the 
Lord  of  the  visible  and  invisible  world,  the  bond  between  them, 
the  absence  of  such  an  announcement  would  be  a  more  perplex- 
ing fact  than  its  occurrence.  If  He  were  not  this,  I  confess  that 
the  story,  however  simply  told,  however  unlike  ordinary  legends 
in  its  freedom  from  parade,  must  be  given  up.  But  admitting  an 
annunciation  at  all,  that  it  should  take  the  form  which  St.  Luke 
reports,  and  that  he  should  be  the  reporter,  seems  to  me  alto- 
gether natural.  For  he  is,  according  to  the  common  hypothesis, 
which  is  the  one  I  am  adopting,  the  Gentile  Evangelist,  intended 
to  prepare  us  for  acknowledging  Christ  as  the  Desire  of  Nations, 
intended  to  tell  us  what  the  meaning  was  of  that  seemingly  un- 
intelligible incorporation  of  Jewish  with  Gentile  history  and  feel- 
ing, which  had  been  going  forward  ever  since  the  Captivity. 


164  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

But  the  angelical  visitations  are  secondary  and  accessory  in 
the  case  both  of  Zachariah  and  Mary  to  the  message  which  they 
bring.  "  Thy  wife  Elizabeth  shall  conceive  and  bear  a  son," 
"  The  Holy  Ghost  shall  come  on  thee,  and  the  power  of  the 
Highest  shall  overshadow  thee."  Here  St.  Luke  shows  us  the 
centra]  opposition  between  the  new  and  the  old  age.  The  man- 
^  ifestation  of  the  Holy  Ghost  distinctly,  personally,  as  the  Life- 
giver,  Life-producer,  as  working  upon  and  in  the  spirits  and  the 
bodies  of  human  beings — most  of  us  hold  this  to  be  the  diag- 
nosis of  the  Gospel  kingdom.  We  often  lose  ourselves  in  vague 
expressions  or  metaphors  respecting  it;  yet  we  should  shrink 
from  the  thought  that  we  are  using  metaphors,  that  we  are  not 
speaking  of  that  which  is  most  actual  and  efficient,  when  we  are 
discoursing  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  of  his  operations.  And  or- 
thodox men  would,  I  suppose,  be  equally  shocked  at  the  notion 
that  that  could  be  true  of  the  members  which  was  not  in  some 
transcendant  sense  true  of  the  Head  ;  that  there  could  be  a 
power  communicated  to  them,  or  effective  for  them,  of  which  He 
had  not  been  the  first  receiver.  Of  them  I  only  ask  that  they 
will  follow  the  course  of  thought,  carefully  and  literally,  which 
the  Evangelist  brings  before  them,  and  that  however  reasonably 
they  may  cling  to  any  habitual  notions,  rather  than  abandon 
them  at  the  bidding  of  an  ordinary  teacher,  they  will  be  ready 
to  cast  them  aside  if  the  book  which  they  confess  to  be  divine 
should  require  the  sacrifice.  Of  those  who  do  not  accept  the 
document,  I  can  only  ask,  that  they  will  at  least  take  pains  to 
ascertain  what  it  says,  that  they  may  not  hastily  impeach  it  of 
inconsistencies  they  or  we  have  put  into  it. 

One  opposition  more  must  be  dwelt  upon  ;  its  importance 
cannot  be  overrated.  Zacharias  is  a  priest,  performing  an  office 
I  in  the  Jewish  commonwealth  ;  the  communication  which  is  made 
to  him  is  connected  with  that  office ;  he  represents  the  common- 
wealth of  Lsrael.  Mary  is  simply  a  woman  ;  a  maiden  of  Galilee  ; 
her  relationship  to  the  house  of  David  is  only  alluded  to  in  so  far 
as  she  was  the  wife  of  Joseph.  She  represents  humanity  ;  human- 
I    ity  in  its  lowliest,  simplest  form.     And  she   shows  what  the  ex- 


ST.    LUKE.  165 

cellence  and  purity  of  humanity  consists  in  ;  "  Behold  the  hand- 
maid of  the  Lord."  Here  is  the  sanda  sanctissima,  the  only  sanc- 
tity which  she  claimed,  or  which  it  would  not  have  been  atheism 
for  her  to  claim.  That  all  goodness  is  in  trust  and  obedience, 
that  all  evil  is  in  distrust  and  disobedience,  this  is  the  lesson 
which  St.  Luke  begins  his  Gospel  by  inculcating,  and  which  we 
shall  find  penetrating  his  mind  through  and  through,  as  it  did 
that  of  his  great  Master  and  Friend. 

St.  Luke,  it  has  often  been  remarked,  is  the  Hymn-writer  of 
the  New  Testai^ient.  The  two  Songs  of  Mary  and  Zacharias  set 
forth,  as  all  have  perceived,  the  character  of  the  New  Dispensa- 
tion ;  of  the  old  as  the  witness  and  herald  of  the  new.  They 
both  celebrate  and  express  the  fact  that  a  spring  of  life  and  joy 
has  been  opened  for  human  beings  ;  that  a  kingdom  of  the  Spirit 
is  beginning  among  them  ;  a  kingdom  now  revealed  but  always 
existing ;  the  subject  of  prophecy,  because  prophecy  speaks  of 
the  eternal  mystery,  which  at  the  appointed  tiftie  is  to  be  made 
known  to  men. 


CHAPTER  II. 

The  second  chapter  of  St.  Luke  contains  no  allusion  to  the 
wise  men  coming  from  the  East  to  seek  a  King  of  the  Jews,  nor 
to  the  flight  into  Egypt,  nor  to  the  murder  in  Bethlehem.  But  it 
speaks  of  the  decree  which  went  out  from  Caesar  Augustus,  that 
all  the  world  should  be  taxed,  of  the  message  to  the  shepherds, 
that  "  to  them  was  born  in  the  city  of  David  a  Saviour,  who  was 
Christ  the  Lord,"  of  the  song,  "Glory  be  to  God  in  the  highest, 
on  earth  peace,  goodwill  toward  men ;  "  of  Simeon's  blessing  on 
Him,  who  was  to  be  a  light  to  lighten  the  Gentiles,  and  the  glory 
of  the  people  Israel ;  of  the  widow  who  spake  of  the  child  to  all 
them  that  looked  for  redemption  at  Jerusalem.  All  the  scenery 
here  is  Jewish  ;  the  royal  city,  the  offerings  of  purification,  the 
holy  doctor,  the  woman  who  was  continually  in  the  Temple  serv- 
ing God  with  fastings   and   prayers.     But  this   only  makes    the 


l66  LECTURE    I.       PART  II. 

essentially  human  character  of  their  rejoicings  and  prophecies 
the  more  remarkable.  We  do  not  hear  of  kings  or  priests,  but 
of  shepherds,  of  devout  men  and  women,  waiting  for  consolation 
and  finding  it,  in  the  belief  of  a  blessing  to  the  Gentiles,  of  a  re- 
demption for  mankind. 

The  other  fact  in  this  chapter,  is  that  of  the  Child  tarrying 
behind  His  parents  at  the  feast,  and  going  into  the  Temple 
among  the  doctors,  to  hear  them  and  to  ask  them  questions. 
Here  there  is  no  anticipation  of  the  subsequent  ministry.  The 
Boy  does  not  become  a  teacher ;  He  is  only  a  questioner.  He 
preserves  and  fulfils  perfectly  the  obedience  and  docility  of  the 
child,  while  he  is  about  His  Father's  business.  But  there  is  a 
clear  intimation  of  a  spiritual  power,  which  could  bring  the 
thoughts  of  men's  hearts  to  light,  and  could  make  the  learned 
scribe  know  himself  and  know  God,  as  he  had  never  done  before. 
A  kingship  over  nature,  and  over  the  minds  and  bodies  of  men, 
was  brought  out  before  us  by  St.  Matthew ;  a  life-giving  sympa- 
thy, an  intercourse  with  the  inner  man,  a  human  fellowship 
grounded  upon,  not  contradicting  the  divine  condescension  and 
compassion,  is  what  St.  Luke,  more  than  either  of  the  other 
Evangelists,  compels  us  to  recognize. 


CHAPTER  in. 

The  preaching  of  John  the  Baptist  in  the  third  chapter  differs 
from  the  accounts  we  have  had  of  it  previously,  in  the  answers 
which  John  makes  to  the  different  classes  who  ask  him,  "  What 
shall  we  do  then  ?  "  Perhaps  the  exceedingly  simple  character 
of  the  answers,  enjoining  merely  common  duties  which  belonged 
to  the  stations  of  the  enquirers  and  carefulness  in  eschewing  the 
temptations  peculiarly  incident  to  them,  may  strike  some  as  at 
variance  with  the  spiritual  character  which  has  been  claimed  for 
St.  Luke.  Would  such  directions  about  good  works  as  a  prep- 
aration for  faith  in  the  Deliverer,  have  been  expected  from  a 
disciple  of  St.  Paul  .^     Or,  if  they  belong  naturally  to   the  lower 


ST.    LUKE.  167 

dispensation  of  John  the  Baptist,  would  he  have  been  the  per- 
son to  recollect  and  preserve  them  ?  I  apprehend  the  very  one. 
Men  of  all  kinds  and  classes  had  come  to  John  to  be  baptized. 
If  they  meant  what  they  did,  if  they  had  actually  sins  to  confess 
and  had  confessed  them,  they  had  received  power  from  above  to 
do  right  acts.  They  were  to  prove  their  faith  in  that  power  by 
doing  them.  Higher  blessings  would  then  be  given  them.  They 
would  know  Him  who  had  come  to  bind  together  in  one,  publi- 
cans, soldiers,  all.  They  would  receive  His  baptism  of  the  Spirit 
and  of  fire,  to  fit  them  for  higher  ministries,  to  preserve  them 
from  the  trial-day  which  was  at  hand. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

I  have  nothing  to  say  upon  the  question  of  the  genealogy  be- 
yond what  has  been  said  a  thousand  times.  That  it  is  carried 
back  to  Adam  has  been  evidence  to  all,  that  St.  Luke  is  not 
purposing  chiefly  to  speak  of  a  Son  of  David  and  a  Son  of 
Abraham,  even  though  none  could  completely  fulfil  those  char- 
acters who  was  not  the  Son  of  Man  and  the  Son  of  God.  St. 
Luke  must  bring  that  fact  out  directly,  not  subordinately.  The 
second  Adam  must  clearly  be  seen  to  be  in  a  far  more  complete 
sense  than  the  first,  yet  in  as  actual  and  formal  a  sense,  the  rep-  \ 
resentative  of  the  race. 

All  the  Evangelists  declare  that  Jesus  was  led  by  the  Spirit 
into  the  wilderness.  St.  Luke  says  that  Jesus,  '"  beiiigfuU  of  the 
Holy  G/iost,  returned  from  Jordan,  and  was  led  into  the  wilder- 
ness ;  "  he  says  that  "  He  returned  in  the  power  of  the  Spirit  into 
Galilee  ;"  he  speaks  of  His  going  into  the  synagogue  at  Naza- 
reth, and  opening  the  book  where  it  was  written,  "  The  Spirit  of 
the  Lord  \s  upon  me."  These  are  not  trivial  observations  ;  they 
would  be  recognized  in  any  book  as  indicating  the  habit  and 
tendency  of  the  writer's  mind.  The  more  they  are  considered 
in  reference  to  the  history  which  they  introduce,  and  in  the  midst 
of  which  they  occur,  the  more  force  will  be  perceived  in  them. 


1 68  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

The  Temptation,  in  all  the  Gospels,  is  the  cardinal  event  upon 
which  the  subsequent  ministry  depends.  I  have  alluded  already 
to  a  difference  in  the  order  of  the  temptations  as  they  occur  in 
St.  Luke,  and  have  assented  to  the  common  opinion,  that  it  is 
characteristic  of  the  Gentile  or  human  character  of  the  third 
Gospel  as  distinguished  from  the  first.  I  did  not  insist  strongly 
upon  the  point,  because  I  feel  that  the  Temptation  is  so  much  a 
meeting-point  between  the  two, — the  obedience  of  the  Son  to  the 
Father  being  the  ground  of  that  ultimate  dominion  over  the 
kingdoms  of  the  world  which  the  devil  does  not,  and  cannot 
give, — that  I  have  been  both  loth  to  press  even  distinctions  which 
I  feel  to  exist,  lest  they  should  interfere  with  our  perception  of 
that  common  truth  which  is  at  the  root  of  them.  There  are 
many  minute  contrasts, — such  as  that  between  the  statement 
that  He  fasted  forty  days,  and  that  then  the  Tempter  came  to 
Him,  and  the  words,  "  being  forty  days  tempted  of  the  devil," — 
which  I  believe  are  very  intelligible,  and  also  very  instructive, 
w^hen  we  have  apprehended  the  ground  of  the  differences  and 
resemblances  in  the  Evangelists.  But  they  are  of  more  value 
when  we  trace  them  out  for  ourselves  than  when  we  receive  them 
at  second-hand.  I  merely  wish  to  give  hints  which  may  assist 
the  student  of  Scripture,  not  to  overwhelm  him  with  interpreta- 
tions of  my  own. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Every  one  perceives  that  there  is  a  difference  in  the  order 
of  events  in  St.  Luke  and  St.  Matthew ;  every  divine  has, 
perhaps,  tried,  at  some  time  or  other,  to  trace  the  course  of  the 
respective  narratives.  I  believe  such  experiments  will  lead  to  a 
great  many  disappointments  ;  that  the  theories  upon  which  we 
have  thought  we  could  venture  most  safely  are  found  to  leak 
unexpectedly  when  we  are  at  sea  in  them.  Yet  I  am  far  from 
thinking  that  the  effort  is  without  its  reward,  even  if  we  come  to 
no    formal    and  positive  decision  upon  the  subject.     I  do   not 


ST.    LUKE.  169 

profess  to  have  any  new  light  upon  it ;  but  when  I  have  read  St. 
Luke's  story  in  reference  to  what  I  believe  to  be  the  leading 
thought  of  the  writer,  I  think  I  have  discovered  an  inward 
coherency  in  his  record.  It  has  justified  itself  to  me,  though  I 
might  blunder  very  much  if  I  tried  to  explain  why  particular 
narratives  might  not  have  been  transposed,  why  they  occupy  the 
places  in  which  we  find  them.  Supposing  these  Gospels  to  be 
works  of  divine  art,  they  should  have  characteristics  answering 
to  those  which  we  recognize  in  works  of  human  art,  still  more  in 
nature  itself.  There  is  an  arrangement  of  parts  which  we  could 
not  lose  without  losing  the  sense  and  meaning  of  the  picture,  or 
poem,  or  landscape  that  is  presented  to  us,  which  it  is  worth 
while  to  meditate  upon,  which  critics  may  often  assist  us  in  con- 
sidering, but  which,  after  all,  comes  out  to  us  by  very  slow 
degrees,  which  we  shall  probably  never  be  able  to  interpret 
rightly  to  others  or  to  ourselves,  though  it  may  impart  a  method 
to  our  own  mi'ids  and  may  make  all  we  do  and  speak  more  clear 
and  intelligible.  With  these  remarks  I  will  dismiss  this  chapter, 
in  which  there  is  nothing,  strictly  speaking,  new,  though  I  am 
satisfied  that  the  connexion  in  which  it  stands  may  give  every 
passage  in  it  a  force  different  from  that  which  it  possessed  when 
it  was  found  with  different  antecedents  and  concomitants. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

This  observation  is  still  more  applicable  to  the  sixth  chapter. 
There  have  been  endless  discussions  on  the  question  whether 
the  discourse  contained  in  it  is,  or  is  not,  an  abridgement  of  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount.  The  facts  of  the  case  are  these.  We 
have  in  this  chapter  a  very  great  number  of  the  sentiments  con- 
tained in  the'  fifth,  sixth,  ancf  seventh  chapters  of  St.  Matthew, 
delivered  nearly,  though  not  exactly,  in  the  same  words.  We 
have  a  number  wholly  omitted,  though  some  of  them  appear 
with  different  modifications  elsewhere.  In  the  openino-  of  the 
fifth  of  St.  Matthew,  it  is  said,    "  And  seeing  the  multitudes    He 


I/O  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

went  up  into  a  mountain  :  and  when  He  was  set,  His  disciples 
came  unto  Him  ;  "  in  tlie  seventeenth  verse  of  our  chapter  it 
is  said,  "  And  He  came  down  with  them,  and  stood  in  the  plaint 
In  St.  Matthew  the  sermon  follows  His  calling  the  two  disciples 
James  and  John  ;  in  St.  Luke  it  follows  the  naming  the  twelve 
apostles. 

It  has  been  a  common  theory,  by  which  many  thought  that 
they  explained  these  differences,  that  the  Evangelists  only  culled 
from  the  discourses  of  Christ  a  number  of  sentences  which  they 
threw  together  into  this  general  sermon.  But  all  must,  I  think, 
perceive  that  the  scenery  of  the  discourse  is  part  of  its  sub- 
stance, that  you  can  only  abstract  it  from  the  circumstances 
in  which  it  was  said  to  have  been  delivered  by  making  it  not  the 
utterance  of  a  living  being,  but  a  set  of  school  apophthegms  ; 
that  is,  by  destroying  its  nature.  That  the  same  words  should 
have  been  repeated  in  different  places  and  circumstances,  which 
would  give  them  a  new  meaning  and  application,  we  should 
all  expect.  There  is  no  true  human  teacher  who  does  not 
repeat  himself,  or  seem  to  repeat  himself.  He  cares  little  for 
novelties,  in  the  vulgar  sense  of  the  word  novelty ;  he  brings  the 
same  principles  to  bear  on  a  multitude  of  cases^  and  so  keeps 
them  everlastingly  fresh.  But  when  you  have  a  definite  descrip- 
tion of  persons  and  places,  you  may  be  sure  it  is  given  because 
they  have  associated  themselves,  and  were  intended  to  associate 
themselves,  with  the  words  and  thoughts  spoken,  which  cannot 
be  rudely  torn  from  them  without  the  dislocation  and  loss  of  their 
sense.  Any  one  who  compares  the  last  three  verses  of  the 
fourth  chapter  of  St.  Matthew  with  the  17th,  i8th,  and  19th  of 
the  sixth  chapter  of  St.  Luke,  will  find  that  they  refer  to  the 
same  kind  of  persons,  the  same  places,  the  same  scenery.  The 
difference,  that  St.  Matthew  said,  He  went  up  into  a  mountain 
and  opened  His  mouth,  and  that  St.  Luke  says,'  He  went  up 
into  a  mountain  to  pray,  and  then  came  down  into  the  plain  or 
table-land  to  speak,  is  too  trifling  to  be  noticed.  No  one  would 
suppose  that  He  preached  upon  a  high  pinnacle  or  retired  part 
of  a  mountain.     St.  Matthew's  language  is  general,  but  accurate 


ST.     LUKE.  171 

enough  for  his  purpose  ;  St.  Luke's  is  more  definite,  because  he 
had  another  fact  to  record,  which  made  it  important  that  he 
should  mention  his  previous  sohcitude  and  the  private  selection 
of  the  Apostles.  With  respect  to  the  times,  it  seems  quite  clear 
that  each  Evangelist  is  always  ready  to  sacrifice  mere  chronol- 
ogy to  that  order  or  succession  of  events  which  most  revealed  his 
purpose.  In  the  short  period  of  our  Lord's  ministry  there  are 
certain  great  land-marks,  such  as  the  Temptation,  the  Trans- 
figuration, the  Entry  into  Jerusalem,  which  all  observe.  Within 
those  landmarks  they  follow  the  bent  and  course  of  thought 
which  the  Spirit  has  given  to  each  ;  they  group  events  according 
to  another  than  a  time  order.  So  far  as  we  can  see,  it  is  a  very 
simple  and  natural  order.  St.  Matthew^,  for  instance,  connects 
the  calling  and  naming  of  the  Apostles  with  the  commission 
which  was  given  them  ;  St.  Luke  connects  the  naming  of  them 
with  a  discourse  which  he  intimates  (and  St.  Matthew  says 
nothing  to  the  contrary)  was  delivered  immediately  after  their 
appointment,  and  which  sets  forth  the  nature  of  the  kingdom 
whereof  they  were  to  be  the  heralds. 

It  is  therefore  the  nature  and  the  intent  of  the  discourse,  as 
it  is  reported  by  the  two  Evangelists,  which  really  concern 
us.  Upon  this  subject  I  have  made  some  remarks  already. 
St.  Luke  "has  not  omitted  a  few  unimportant  paragraphs  of  the 
sermon  in  St.  Matthew;  he  has  omitted  some  of  its  most  capital 
and  characteristic  passages,  those  which  the  reader  of  St.  Mat- 
thew dwells  upon,  and  which  affect  his  view  of  every  word  in  it. 
He  cannot  have  done  this  undesignedly.  He  has  no  more 
abridged  this  discourse  than  St.  Mark  has  abridged  the  whole 
Gospel  of  St.  Matthew.  He  has  omitted  precisely  that  part 
which  conveys  to  us  the  object  and  design  of  St.  Matthew,  which 
would  have  prevented  us  from  perceiving  his  own.  Thus  the 
part  of  the  discourse  which  he  has  preserved  gains  a  force  which 
otherwise  would  have  been  hidden ;  it  does  not  set  forth  the  ful- 
filment of  the  old  dispensation,  but  the  special  and  distinct  con- 
dition and  office  of  the  new.  The  important  and  precious 
Hebrew  element  was  brought  out  in  its  fulness  elsewhere  ;  St. 


1/2  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

Luke's  business  was  to  sink  that,  that  the  pure  human  element 
of  the  teaching  might  be  manifest  to  all. 


CHAPTERS  VII.  VIII. 

There  are  two  narratives  in  the  seventh  chapter  which  belong- 
exclusively  to  St.  Luke.  The  first  is  the  raising  of  the  Widow 
^  of  Nain's  son,  the  second  is  the  interview  with  the  woman  who 
was  a  sinner  in  the  house  of  Simon  the  Pharisee.  I  suppose  it 
must  have  struck  most  readers  that  in  the  first  three  Gospels 
there  is  less  emphasis  laid  on  the  fact  of  the  dead  being  raised 
to  life  than  they  would  at  all  expect.  The  few  acts  of  this  kind 
which  are  mentioned  are  not  alluded  to  as  distinguished  from 
the  general  course  of  our  Lord's  acts  ;  even  the  impression  which 
is  said  to  have  been  made  by  them  is  not  greatly  dwelt  upon. 
Such  words  as  these,  ''  There  came  a  fear  on  all ;  and  they 
glorified  God,  saying,  That  a  great  Prophet  is  risen  up  among 
us  ;  and,  That  God  hath  visited  His  people,"  contain  all  that  they 
have  to  say  upon  this  point.  In  these  Evangelists  you  discover 
the  conviction  that  the  Christ  was  come  to  encounter  death  in  all 
its  forms,  so  deeply  rooted,  so  governing  their  whole  minds,  that 
they  do  not  stop  to  make  distinctions,  or  feel  one  instance 
of  the  conflict  as  much  more  striking  or  memorable  than  an- 
other.    I  do  not  find  any  thing  remarkable  in  St.  Luke  recording 


one  more  event  of  this  kind  than  St  Matthew  or  St.  Mark. 

But  the  sympathies  of  ordinary  readers,  which  are  greater 
helps  in  investigating  the  inner  sense  of  these  acts  of  power 
than  the  discourses  of  critics,  have  always  pointed  to  the  words, 
*'  son  of  a  widow,"  as  containing  the  most  vital  and  essential  part 
of  this  narrative.  In  them  I  believe  we  discern  the  mind  of  St. 
Luke.  If  it  is  one  leading  character  of  the  New  Dispensation 
as  distinguished  from  the  Old,  that  it  puts  a  more  direct  honor 
upon  the  woman,  or,  more  strictly  speaking,  brings  out  the 
honor  which  was  there  latent  and  implied,  St.  Luke  should  cer- 
tainly, according    to  all    the  notions  we    have    formed  of   him 


ST.    LUKE.  173 

hitherto,  exhibit  that  sign  of  the  later  time  in  connexion  with  the 
life  of  the  Son  of  God.  We  have  seen  how  he  exhibits  it  in  the 
first  and  second  chapters  of  his  Gospel,  not  by  any  affected  sen- 
timentalism,  not  by  losing  sight  of  the  manliness  which  belonged 
to  the  Jewish  history  and  must  belong  to  the  history  of  every 
great  and  godly  nation  ;  but  by  connecting  the  glory  of  the 
woman  with  the  glory  of  humanity,  by  exhibiting  her  passive  and 
receptive  faith  as  the  agent  through  which  a  real  Divine  energy 
makes  itself  effectual.  I  should  fear  the  charge  of  being  fanci- 
ful in  connecting  this  observation  with  the  story  of  the  miracle  at 
Nain,  if  I  had  not  the  support  of  the  most  honest  popular  feel- 
ing, and  if  instances  illustrative  of  the  same  tendency  did  not 
occur  again  and  again  in  this  Gospel. 

One  presents  itself  to  us  immediately.  Our  Lord  is  eating 
bread  in  the  Pharisee's  house  ;  a  woman  that  is  a  sinner  comes 
in,  brings  an  alabaster  box  of  ointment,  stands  at  His  feet 
behind  Him,  weeping,  begins  to  wash  His  feet  with  tears,  wipes 
them  with  the  hairs  of  her  head,  kisses  His  feet  and  anoints 
them  with  the  ointment.  It  would  be  a  great  perversion  of  this 
story  to  think  of  it  as  referring  to  one  sex  merely.  The  common 
feeling  that  it  represents  Christ's  treatment  of  the  sinner  as  such, 
and  the  difference  of  one  who  is  conscious  oE  owing  the  five 
hundred  pence,  and  of  being  forgiven  that,  from  one  who  scarcely 
and  with  hesitation  confesses  to  the  fifty,  must  be  the  true  feel- 
ing. God  forbid  that  I  should  in  any  wise  weaken  it  1  If  I  did 
I  should  hide  one  of  the  greatest  characteristics  of  this  Gospel, 
the  one  which  belongs  to  it  as  the  Gentile  Gospel — its  eagerness, 
I  mean,  to  bear  testimony  that  the  outcasts  and  the  lost  are 
continual  objects  of  the  divine  care  and  search.  But  yet 
the  person  in  whom  this  principle  is  set  forth  must  not  be 
forgotten.  All  her  acts,  every  one  has  perceived  it,  are  the  acts 
of  a  woman.  The  whole  female  character  comes  out  in  them. 
It  is  indeed  a  side  of  humanity  which  must  never  be  wanting  in 
a  man,  or  he  will  be  congealed  into  a  hard  Pharisee  or  Sad- 
ducee.  In  one  sense  it  is  humanity  itself,  conscious  of  its  shame, 
and  yet  dependent,  trusting,  hiding  its  evil  in  the  love  of  One 


174-  LECTURE  I.   PART  II. 

above  it,  till  it  is  buried  and  lost.  But  still  it  is  the  female  side 
of  humanity,  not  the  commanding,  kingly  side,  but  the  side 
on  which  lie  submission,  self-surrender,  hope,  the  side  which 
is  prone  to  all  weakness,  error,  ruin,  and  which  can  be  raised 
out  of  the  very  depths  of  all,  by  the  voice  of  love  which  it  at  the 
same  time  acknowledges  as  the  voice  of  authority,  "Thy  faith 
hath  saved  thee  ;  go  in  peace."  The  belief  of  a  Magdalen  has 
always  gone  along  in  the  heart  of  Christendom  with  the  belief  in 
a  Virgin.  Both  have  been  infinitely  degraded,  and  with  them 
the  ideas  of  penitence  and  faith.  In  the  degradation  of  them 
the  female  character  has  been  degraded ;  for  it  has  made  a 
religion  for  itself,  it  has  turned  its  fancies  into  idols,  it  has  cut 
itself  off  from_  manly  thoughts  and  feelings,  and  has  caused  them 
to  take  a  defying  atheistical  shape.  But  both  these  ideas  can  be 
redeemed,  and  must  be  redeemed  ;  no  one  would  be  so  help- 
ful in  the  work  as  that  Evangelist  who  was  appointed  to 
bring  them  livingly  before  us. 

The  8th  chapter  opens  with  another  of  the  indications  to 
which  allusion  has  just  been  made.  "  And  it  came  to  pass 
afterward,  that  He  went  throughout  every  city  and  village, 
preaching  and  showing  the  glad  tidings  of  the  kingdom  of  God  : 
and  the  twelve  were  with  Him.  And  certain  women,  which  had 
been  healed  of  evil  spirits  and  infirmities,  Mary  called  Magalene,  \ 
out  of  whom  went  seven  devils,  and  Joanna  the  wife  of  Chuza- 
Herod's  steward,  and  Susanna,  and  many  others,  which  minis- 
tered unto  Him  of  their  substance."  This  memorable  and 
important  passage  is  confined  to  St.  Luke.  On  the  strength  of 
it,  the  Magdalen  has  been  very  reasonably  identified  with  the 
womian  who  brought  the  alabaster  box  of  ointment  to  the  Phari- 
see's house.  Whether  she  is  also  to  be  identified  with  the  sister 
of  Lazarus,  is  a  more  difficult  question,  upon  which  this  passage 
certainly  throws  no  light,  and  which,  so  far  as  I  am  aware, 
receives  none  from  St.  Luke's  Gospel. 


ST.    LUKE.  175 


CHAPTER  IX. 

This  chapter  contains  the  story  of  the  Transfiguration.  It 
should  therefore,  according  to  a  remark  made  a  short  time  ago, 
be  a  critical  one  in  the  chronology  of  events.  All  commentators 
and  harmonists  have  confessed  that  it  is.  The  words  in  the  51st 
verse,  "  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  the  time  was  come  that 
He  should  be  received  up,  He  steadfastly  set  His  face  to  go 
to  Jerusalem,"  can  have  no  other  meaning  than  that  He  set  out 
on  that  last  journey  which  ended  with  His  royal  entry  into  Jeru- 
salem and  with  His  Crucifixion.  All  the  passages  in  the  Gospel 
between  that  and  the  28th  verse  of  the  19th  chapter,  have  been 
considered,  and  must  be  considered,  as  connected  with  that 
journey ;  the  period  which  they  occupied  may  have  been  a  very 
short  one.  They  contain  the  most  peculiar  and  remarkable  part 
of  St.  Luke's  gospel — a  proof,  if  proof  were  wanting,  how  little 
the  attempt  to  arrange  the  Gospels  after  the  manner  of  the  har- 
monists, can  help  us  to  understand  their  real  import  or  appre- 
ciate the  relation  of  different  passages  to  each  other. 

This  chapter  contains  between  the  49th  and  57th  verses,  two 
narratives  which  belong  exclusively  to  St.  Luke.  The  first  turns 
upon  the  remark  of  St.  John  when  Jesus  took  the  child  and  set 
him  by  Him,  "  Master,  we  saw  one  casting  out  devils  in  thy 
name  ;  and  we  forbad  him,  because  he  followeth  not  with  us  ;  " 
a  passage  very  interesting  for  the  light  it  throws  upon  the  way  in 
which  our  Lord's  words  called  forth  an  answer  in  the  con- 
science, apparently  not  related  to  them  ;  unspeakably  valuable  as 
pointino^  out  the  danger  of  our  interference  with  God's  own  work 
of  assigning  offices  to  men.  These  words  I  apprehend  connect 
themselves  very  closely  with  St.  Luke's  object.  The  disciple 
and  friend  of  St.  Paul  would  naturally  be  reminded  of  language 
which  denoted  that  the  calling  of  the  twelve  Apostles  was  not 
one  which  was  meant  to  exclude  another  and  more  secret  calling  ; 
that   holy  as  their  order   was,  its   holiness  proceeded    entirely 


176  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

I    from  His  vocation  who  might  choose  others  in  a  different  way  to 
cast  out  devils  in  His  name. 

Still  more  characteristic  is  the  other  passage.  Christ  and  His 
disciples  on  their  journey  to  Jerusalem,  enter  into  a  village  of 
the  Samaritans;  the  inhabitants  will  not  receive  them;  James 
and  John  ask,  "  Shall  we  call  down  fire  upon  them,  as  Elias 
did  ?  "  It  must  have  been  shortly  after  the  confession  of  Peter, 
shortly  after  the  Transfiguration.  The  Apostles  therefore  had  a 
much  stronger  conviction  than  before,  that  their  Master  was  the 
divine  King,  the  Son  of  the  living  God.  Could  any  thing 
be  more  natural  than  the  vindication  of  His  office  and  authority 
by  the  method  which  the  Old  Testament  history  had  justified  ? 
It  has  been  said,  and  I  think  most  truly,  that  the  answer,  "  Ye 
know  not  what  manner  of  spirit  ye  are  of,"  was  not  a  condemna- 
tion of  Elias,  but  an  assertion  of  the  principle  of  the  new 
economy.  I  cannot  admit  however  that  the  words  contained  no 
censure  upon  the  Apostles,  or  merely  a  censure  for  not  under- 
standing a  difference  which  they  were  as  yet  not  capable  of 
understanding.  The  words  are  too  strong  for  that.  "  Ye  know 
not  what  manner  of  spirit  ye  are  of,"  must  signify,  "Ye  know  not 
I  whether  ye  are  under  the  dominion  of  a  righteous  Spirit  or 
1  an  unrighteous  one."  What  Elias  had  done  in  a  righteous  spirit 
to  assert  the  dominion  of  the  righteous  Ruler,  the  Lord  God 
of  Israel,  they  would  have  done  to  assert  the  authority  of  their 
Master,  of  the  Person  who  had  called  them  to  be  His  ministers. 
The  persecuting  temper  of  the  Apostles  showed  that  they  still  did 
not  understand  that  they  were  the  disciples  of  a  Son  of  Man,  the 
head  of  a  universal  dispensation,  who  was  to  gather  Samaritans 
and  Jews  into  the  same  fold.  For  that  reason  St.  Luke  would 
be  careful  to  report  the  story  and  its  warning.  But  since  this 
Son  of  Man  was  also  the  Son  of  God,  since  He  came  to  fulfil 
that  which  had  been  spoken  by  Moses  and  Elijah,  the  words 
of  James  and  John  showed  that  they  were  only  beginning 
to  understand  the  acts  of  lawgivers  and  prophets,  that  they  had 
not  yet  entered  into  their  mind  and  spirit. 


ST.     LUKE.  177 


CHAPTER  X. 

The  mission  of  the  Seventy  is  recorded  only  by  St.  Luke.  "^ 
Old  interpreters  have  conjectured  that  he  was  one  of  the  num- 
ber. There  can  be  no  need  for  a  gratuitous  assumption  ;  we  are 
told  that  he  was  an  Evangelist ;  we  have  seen  in  the  instance  of 
the  last  chapter  that  he  was  careful  to  report  words  which 
checked  the  desire  of  an  apostle  to  make  his  order  a  plea 
for  exclusiveness.  It  was  natural  that  he  should  dwell  upon  an 
incident  which  justified  the  existence  of  a  distinct  class  of 
teachers  ;  which  showed  that  the  New  Dispensation,  though 
derived  from  the  Old  and  recognizing  its  principles  in  the  num- 
ber of  the  original  Apostles,  would  require  and  possess  an 
organization  adapted  to  its  work  among  the  Gentiles.  It  will  be 
remarked  that  neither  here,  nor  in  the  commands  to  the  twelve 
Apostles  in  the  twelfth  chapter,  is  there  the  limitation  to  the 
tribes  of  Israel  which  we  find  in  Matthew;  an  indication  that  St. 
Luke  contemplated  the  ultimate  and  universal  meaning  of  both 
offices  rather  than  their  temporary  restriction.  In  their  strict- 
ness St.  Matthew's  directions  belong  to  the  immediate  going 
forth  of  the  Apostles  to  the  towns  whither  Christ  himself  had 
gone  or  would  go.  But  it  is  impossible  not  to  see  more  in  the 
words,  "  Ye  shall  not  have  gone  over  the  ciiies  of  Judah  till  the 
Son  of  Man  come,"  than  a  mere  reference  to  the  time  of  their 
Master's  continuance  on  earth.  What  force  they  did  bear  in  the 
minds  of  those  to  whom  they  were  addressed,  and  how  they  were 
obeyed,  we  may  have  to  consider  in  my  second  lecture.  I  am 
only  desirous  here  to  point  out  the  consistency  of  St.  Luke  in  fol- 
lowing out  the  idea  whereby  his  Gospel  is  distinguished  from  the 
Hebrew  one. 

The  exquisite  passage,  in  which  the  joy  of  the  Seventy 
because  the  devils  are  subject  to  them,  is  brought  into  compari- 
son with  the  rejoicing  of  the  spirit  of  Jesus,  when  He  said,  "  I 
thank  thee,  O  Father,  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  that  thou  hast 

12 


1/8  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

hid  these  things  from  the  wise  and  prudent,"  is  worthy  of  the 
deepest  study  for  its  own  sake,  and  I  think  also  for  the  light 
which  it  throws  upon  our  immediate  subject.  Spiritual  life  and 
joy,  in  its  pure  form  and  in  its  temptations,  must,  if  what  has 
been  said  before  is  true,  be  a  subject  for  the  Evangelist  of 
the  coming  age  especially  to  dwell  upon.  Surely  the  loss  would 
have  been  incalculable  if  we  had  not  this  indication  of  the  foun- 
tain of  gladness  which  there  was  in  the  innermost  heart  of  the 
Man  of  Sorrows. 

The  words  which  were  spoken  privately  to  the  disciples, 
"  Blessed  are  the  eyes  which  see  the  things  that  ye  see  :  for 
I  tell  you,  that  many  prophets  and  kings  have  desired  to  see  those 
things  which  ye  see,  and  have  not  seen  them,"  at  once  suggest 
that  comparison  between  the  time  that  had  been,  and  that  was 
to  be,  which  this  whole  Gospel  is  bringing  before  us.  They 
spring  out  of  the  previous  words  ;  they  show  how  the  oil  of  glad- 
ness in  Christ  could  not  be  confined  to  himself,  but  flowed  upon 
all  about  him  ;  His  blessedness  was  in  the  recollection  of  their 
blessedness,  and  theirs  was  to  consist  in  knowing  the  Father 
and  the  Son. 

I  believe  also  that  the  Church  (see  Gospel  for  13th  Sunday 
after  Trinity)  teaches  us  much  by  connecting  these  words  with 
the  passage  that  follows  them — with  the  question  of  the  lawyer, 
and  the  parable  of  the  good  Samaritan.  The  representative 
of  the  old  world — of  the  Law — comes  forward  with  a  question, 
"What  shall  I  do  to  inherit  eternal  life?"  The  Pharisaical 
schools,  which  must  have  understood  by  eferna/Wie  (as  so  many 
of  us  do)  merely  future  life,  the  rewards  after  death,  will  of 
course  have  been  continually  discussing  this  point ;  the  teacher 
who  could  offer  the  best  rules  would  be  esteemed  the  wisest. 
The  observation  must  be  repeated  which  I  made  in  reference  to 
the  young  ruler  who,  with  a  different  purpose,  and  in  a  different 
state  of  mind,  proposed  a  similar  question.  The  keeping  of  the 
commandments  was  not  held  to  be  a  security  for  obtaining  this 
future  life  by  those  who  set  most  store  by  the  commandments. 
Something  more    must   be    done.     Each    doctor  could  suggest 


ST.     LUKE.  179 

what  were  the  most  acceptable  methods  of  pleasing  God  ;  how  a 
man  might  increase  his  chance  of  felicity.  What  scheme  had  the 
new  prophet  to  propose  ?'  The  reply  is  an  argiimentuin  ad ho^ninem  : 
the  student  of  the  Law  is  sent  back  to  the  Law.  Our  Lord 
does  not  sanction  the  doctrine  that  more  is  required  than  is 
written  there.  But  what  is  written  there  ?  Then  the  lawyer 
recollects  the  words  which  some  enlightened  doctor  of  an  olden 
time  had  probably  set  before  his  hearers  as  expressing  the 
highest  demands  of  God  upon  his  creatures.  "  Thou  shalt  love 
the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy^  heart  and  soul  and  mind,  and  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself."  Assuredly  he  could  not  have  answered 
better  ;  whether  another  told  him,  or  he  found  for  himself  that 
these  words  in  Deuteronomy  explained  the  nature  and  condition 
of  human  life,  he  was  right ;  the  secret  was  there.  But  the  law- 
yer had  never  felt  before  so  keenly  as  then,  when  the  eyes  of 
Him  who  was  Truth  were  upon  him,  and  when  he  heard  himself 
commended  for  his  knowledge  of  the  right  way, — that  these 
grand  words  did  not  meet  his  case.  Of  course  it  was  possible 
to  love  God  with  all  the  heart  and  soul  ;  of  course,  also,  it  was 
possible  to  love  one's  neighbor  as  one's  self.  But  who  is  he  ? 
The  text  does  not  tell  that.  What  a  discovery  for  a  lawyer 
to  make  !  The  letter  of  the  sublimest  command  was  powerless  to 
enforce  obedience  !  It  could  not  even  with  all  its  accuracy 
define  its  own  objects  !  A  whole  world  was  left  open  to  the 
subtlety  of  interpreters,  practically  to  the  fancy  of  the  ordinary 
man,  in  fixing  the  limits  of  that  one  word  "  neighbor  "  !  And 
where  was  the  definition  to  be  found  ?  The  parable  answered 
the  question.  It  reveals  the  existence  of  a  Law  of  Love,  acting 
directly  upon  the  heart,  determining  that  heart  by  its  own  power 
to  recognize  neighborhood  where  all  outward  geographical  rules, 
old  traditional  feelings,  the  maxims  of  religion,  denied  its  exist- 
ence. It  revealed  at  the  same  time  the  impotency  of  a  mere 
rule  to  make  a  man  practically  confess  neighborhood,  where  all 
geographical  lines,  traditions,  religion,  proclaimed  its  existence. 
The  priest  and  the  Levite  saw  the  man  who  had  gone  down 
from  Jerusalem  to  Jericho,  and  passed  by  on  the  other  side. 


l80  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

There  is,  I  am  sure,  a  depth  in  this  parable,  taking  it  in 
its  simplest  sense,  to  which  familiarity  has  made  us  blind.  I  do 
not  doubt  that  the  very  incident  had  occurred,  as  it  is  described. 
The  Samaritans  are  throughout  represented  as  open  to  impres- 
sions of  affection  and  gratitude  which  the  Jew,  cased  in  formali- 
ties, did  not  receive  or  entertain.  Whence  came  these  impres- 
sions ?  Did  they  come  from  the  evil  nature  ?  Or  had  the 
Samaritan  less  of  this  evil  nature  because  he  rejected  a  portion 
of  the  Scripture,  and  did  not  worship  in  the  Temple  at  Jerusa- 
lem ?  Or  was  there  some  secret  spring  of  good  from  which  all 
that  was  loving  in  Jew  or  Samaritan  proceeded  ;  some  actual 
Person  in  whom  the  law  of  Love  dwelt  perfectly,  and  from 
whom  men  derived  their  impulse  and  power  to  fulfil  it  ?  Should 
not  Jews,  convinced  of  their  inability  to  fulfil  that  law  though 
they  possessed  written  letters  of  stone,  cry  out  that  such  an  one 
should  come  forth  out  of  the  darkness  and  declare  Himself 
to  them  as  the  Lord  of  their  lives,  the  author  of  their  obedience  ? 
If  He  did  so  declare  Himself,  might  not  Samaritans,  might  not 
Gentiles  own.  This  is  the  common  brother  of  us  all  ;  the  One 
who  owns  all  wounded  and  half-dead  creatures  as  objects  of  His 
love  and  care  ;  the  One  whose  Spirit  can  help  us  all  to  go  and 
do  likewise.  Blessed  are  your  eyes,  fishermen  of  Galilee,  for 
you  see  that  universal  brother  whom  kings  and  prophets  desired 
to  see  ! 

If  I  am  not  mistaken,  we  shall  find  that  this  parable  is  the 
type  of  those  which  are  peculiar  to  St.  Luke  ;  that  though  each 
has  a  distinct  purpose  and  brings  out  a  different  truth  respect- 
ing the  divine  Kingdom,  a  feeling  of  the  contrast  between  Law 
and  Gospel,  between  the  human  and  the  merely  national,  be- 
tween the  mind  of  God  as  set  forth  in  a  Person,  and  that  mind 
as  it  is  exhibited  in  decrees,  of  the  contrast,  and  yet  of  the  es- 
sential oneness  of  the  principles  of  the  old  world  and  the  new, 
is  latent  in  them'all.  It  may  be  difficult  at  times  to  distinguish 
between  this  idea  and  the  idea  of  fulfilment  in  St.  Matthew,  each 
so  involves  the  other,  each  is  so  impossible  without  the  other. 
Yet  the  more  we  think  of  it,  the  more  we  shall  find  that  if  either 


ST.    LUKE.  l8l 

had  been  presented  alone,  there  would  have  been  narrowness 
and  imperfection  in  that  which  ought  to  be  universal  and  per- 
fect, and  that  when  they  were  both  presented,  there  was  abun- 
dant room  for  partisans  to  take  hold  of  each,  and  to  represent 
it  as  the  contradiction,  not  the  completion,  of  the  other.  But  I 
am  anticipating  .a  future  part  of  this  inquiry. 

I  have  represented  St.  Luke's  Gospel  as  in  some  sense  an  ex- 
hibition of  contrasts.  That  characteristic  has  always  been  rec- 
ognized in  the  story  which  concludes  this  chapter.  The  two 
forms  of  character  which  men  have  been  accustomed  to  describe 
as  the  active  and  contemplative,  are  supposed  to  be  brought  to- 
gether, and  a  very  distinct  preference  to  be  expressed  for  that  of 
which  Mary  was  the  type.  No  doubt  there  is  this  opposition  ; 
no  doubt  it  belongs  to  all  ages.  But  I  question  whether  we  ar- 
rive at  the  real  force  of  our  Lord's  words  by  reducing  two  actual 
women  into  representatives  of  certain  qualities  which  ought  to 
be  united  in  every  character,  if  it  is  formed  in  the  image  of  Him 
whose  inward  delight  was  to  do  the  will  of  His  Father  in  Heaven, 
and  who  went  about  doing  good.  Martha  complains  of  her 
sister,  and  is  rebuked  for  her  complaining,  not  for  her  diligence. 
The  deeper  moral  would  seem  to  be,  that  restlessness  and  bustle 
are  not  activity,  that  a  still  current  of  inward  life  is  essential  to 
steady  patient  work.  I  am  afraid  that  our  eagerness  to  find  a 
force  and  emphasis  in  the  words,  "one  thing  is  needful,"  pro- 
ceeds less  from  a  reverence  for  Him  who  spoke  them,  than  from 
the  convenience  of  so  short  a  sentence  as  a  motto  for  sermons, 
and  from  an  unhappy  notion  that  religion  is  a  thing  to  be  separ- 
ated from  all  other  things — the  pursuit  of  one  selfish  object  rather 
than  of  a  great  many.  If  we  once  adopt  that  notion,  we  shall 
certainly  not  sit  at  Jesus'  feet;  we  may  not  be  as  active  as 
Martha  was,  but  we  shall  be  as  much  troubled  by  outward  cares 
and  inward  restlessness  as  she  can  ever  have  been.  These  re- 
marks may  raise  the  suspicion  that  I  am  anxious  to  weaken  the 
popular  impression  of  the  passage.  My  real  desire  is  to 
strengthen  it  by  disconnecting  it  with  some  accompaniments  with 
which  I  think  it  has  nothing  to  do.     The  genuine  common  feel- 


1 82  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

ing  respecting  Mary  and  Martha  is  in  accordance  with  the  hints 
I  have  given  respecting  St.  Luke's  general  object,  and  illustrates 
that  special  tendency  which  I  have  noticed  in  him  to  bring  out 
the  female  character  in  its  relation  to  Christ  and  His  Gospel, 
thus  seizing  one  of  the  points  which  has  remarkably  distinguished 
the  history  of  the  modern  world  from  that  of  the  old. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

In  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  as  reported  by  St.  Matthew,  our 
Lord  bids  His  disciples  not  pray  as  the  Pharisees  did,  standing 
in  the  corners  of  the  streets,  but  to  their  Father  who  saw  in 
secret,  and  Himself  would  reward  them  openly.  Then  He  says, 
"After  this  manner  therefore  pray  ye."  Here  the  disciples  say, 
"Lord,  teach  us  to  pray,  as  John  also  taught  his  disciples."  He 
repeats  with  some  variation  the  same  form  of  words.  This 
form,  it  has  often  been  remarked,  had  long  been  known  to  the 
Jews  ;  at  all  events  they  had  each  of  its  separate  petitions.  It 
is  the  Lord's  prayer,  not  because  Jesus  taught  His  disciples  to 
cast  away  that  which  had  been  in  use  previously,  but  because 
He  enabled  them  to  enter  into  the  sense  of  it,  to  understand 
that  God  was  answering  it  and  would  answer  it,  to  feel  that  their 
Father  was  Himself  meaning  to  accomplish  those  wishes  which 
He  taught  them  to  utter.  The  Pharisee  might  pray,  saying, 
"  Our  Father,"  standing  in  the 'corner  of  the  streets  ;  but  he  did 
not  believe  in  a  Father,  he  acknowledged  only  a  Being  whose 
name  he  dreaded,  whose  kingdom  he  was  afraid  must  come, 
whose  will  in  heaven  he  wished  to  be  like  his  on  earth.  St. 
Matthew  might  therefore  most  justly  represent  Christ  as  fulfill- 
ing the  very  letter  and  spirit  of  the  Old  Dispensation,  by  teach- 
ing that  confession  of  a  Father,  that  desire  for  the  triumph  of 
His  Name,  His  kingdom.  His  will,  which  they  by  their  self- 
righteousness  were  continually  setting  at  naught.  But  the  dis- 
ciples would  very  naturally  think  that  a  prayer  which  Christ  had 
spoken   in  the  hearing   of   a  great  multitude,  was  not  the  one 


ST.    LUKE.  I  S3 

which  He  intended  for  them,  His  chosen  band.  They  saw 
Christ  praying  upon  a  mountain  apart  ;  they  remembered  that 
John  had  communicated  what  his  disciples  thought  was  a  pecu- 
Har  wisdom  to  them  ;  would  He  not  tell  the  secret  of  prayer,  of 
influencing  the  divine  Mind,  could  He  not  give  them  His  esote- 
ric lore  ?  He  taught  them  the  same  "  Our  Father."  This  was 
to  be  the  prayer  for  the  New  Dispensation — this  common  prayer, 
this  which  belonged  to  the  poorest  beggar  among  the  crowds 
around  the  Mount  as  much  as  to  them,  the  ministers  and  judges 
of  the  new  kingdom. 

Then  follows  what  we  have  not  elsewhere,  a  parable  recom- 
mending importunity — saying,  that  a  friend  may  obtain  that  by 
continual  entreaty  which  he  does  not  obtain  merely  because  he 
is  a  friend.  Compare  this  with  a  passage  in  St.  Matthew,  in 
which  it  is  said,  "  Do  not  think  ye  shall  be  heard  for  your  much 
speaking  ;  for  your  Father  in  heaven  knows  what  things  ye  have 
need  of  before  you  ask  him."  The  two  lessons  seem  in  direct 
opposition  to  each  other.  And,  what  is  curious,  the  sentiment 
which  liberal  and  enlightened  men  of  this  day  approve,  and  are 
fond  of  quoting,  is  recorded  by  the  narrow-minded  Hebrew  Mat- 
thew ;  the  one  which  they  denounce  as  fanatical  and  supersti- 
tious, we  owe  to  the  disciple  of  St.  Paul.  It  may  be  well  for 
them,  it  is  certainly  well  for  those  who  reverence  these  Gospels, 
to  observ^e,  that  the  importunity  which  St.  Luke  urges,  both  here 
and  in  a  parable  which  will  come  before  us  hereafter,  is  import- 
unity that  God's  will  may  be  done,  that  God's  kingdom  may 
come.  What  that  kingdom  is,  what  that  will  is,  how  the  one  is 
to  be  accomplished,  and  the  other  established.  He  must  know 
before  we  ask  Him.  But  the  eagerness  of  our  entreaty  that  it 
should  be  done,  will  depend,  first,  upon  our  belief  that  His  is  a 
good  will  and  a  good  kingdom  ;  secondly,  upon  our  experience 
that  there  is  a  very  bad  will  and  a  very  bad  kifigdom  actually 
and  perpetually  resisting  it ;  thirdly,  upon  our  confidence  that 
we  are  meant  to  be  fellow-workers  with  our  Father  in  heaven — 
meant,  with  the  energy  of  our  wills  and  the  energies  of  our  acts, 
to  assist  in  the  victory  of  the  true  over  the  false ;  in  other  words, 


184  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

must  depend  upon  the  degree  in  which  the  Spirit  of  our  Father 
in  heaven  works  in  us.  Most  rightly  therefore  the  Gospel  which 
directly  treats  of  the  communication  of  the  Spirit  to  man  as  the 
source  of  his  energies  and  acts,  would  dwell  upon  this  side  of 
the  truth.  Audit  illustrates  this  difference,  and  the  object  of 
our  Evangelist,  that  in  the  parallel  passages,  Matthew  vii.  11, 
and  Luke  xi.  13,  St.  Luke  sacrifices  the  antithesis,  "If  ye  then, 
being  evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  unto  your  children  :  how 
much  more  shall  your  heavenly  Father  which  is  in  heaven  give 
good  gifts  to  them  that  ask  Him  ?  "  that  he  may  introduce  the 
words,  "  Give  the  Holy  Spirit  to  them  that  ask  Him."  No 
doubt  our  Lord  at  different  times  used  both  expressions  ;  but 
what  a  light  does  the  latter  throw  upon  the  former  ! 

From  these  words  St.  Luke  proceeds,  by  what  seems  to  me  a 
very  natural  process  of  thought,  to  the  argument  of  our  Lord 
with  the  Pharisees  respecting  the  power  by  which  He  cast  out 
devils.  It  was  by  a  Spirit  He  cast  out  devils.  If  it  was  a  bad 
spirit,  then  Satan  was  divided  against  himself ;  if  it  was  by  a 
good  spirit,  then  the  strong  man  who  was  keeping  his  goods  in 
peace  had  been  assaulted  by  One  who  was  stronger  than  he. 

Then  by  another  transition  still  more  characteristic,  he  sets 
forth  the  opposition  between  the  spiritual  kingdom  and  the  seek- 
ing for  signs  ;  between  the  spiritual  power  which  makes  clean 
the  inside  of  the  man  first,  by  that  means  purifying  the  outward, 
and  the  materialism  of  the  Pharisees,  who  made  clean  the  out- 
side of  the  cup  and  the  platter,  while  their  inward  part  was  full 
of  ravening  and  wickedness.  I  have  spoken  of  all  these  pas- 
sages before,  but  I  wish  the  reader  to  observe  how  they  may  ob- 
tain a  new  force  from  their  connection. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

In  some  English  Bibles  this  chapter  is  headed,  "  Christ's 
charge  to  the  Apostles."  Now  there  is  no  allusion  to  the 
Apostles,  as  such,  in  the   whole  discourse  which  it  contains  till 


ST.    LUKE.  185 

St.  Peter  asks  (ver.  41)  our  Lord,  "  Speakest  thou  this  parable 
(concerning  preparation  for  the  Son  of  Man)  to  us,  or  even  to 
all .?  "  And  he  receives  the  answer,  "  Who  then  is  that  faithful 
and  wise  steward,  whom  his  Lord  shall  make  ruler  over  his 
household  .?  "  Undoubtedly,  many  of  the  sentences  in  this  chap- 
ter form  part  of  the  charge  to  the  Apostles  in  St.  Matthew,  as 
many  of  them  belong  to  the  first  stage  of  His  ministry.  The 
new  force  which  they  receive  in  St.  Luke  seems  to  be  this,  that 
they  are  addressed  to  disciples,  or  to  individuals  of  the  multitude,^ 
not  to  the  twelve  ;  that  they  are  connected  with  the  last  journey 
to  Jerusalem,  the  post-transfiguration  period ;  therefore  with 
more  strong  denunciations  of  all  the  habits  which  were  destroy- 
ing the  Jewish  heart,  and  making  it  incapable  of  recognizing  its 
King.  There  are  a  great  many  minor  differences  which  will  sug- 
gest themselves  to  the  attentive  reader,  and  which  make  this 
discourse  as  full  of  fresh  teaching  as  if  its  words  had  occurred 
nowhere  else. 

CHAPTER  XHL 

Every  passage  in  this  chapter  is  obviously  bearing  upon  Jeru- 
salern  and  the  approach  to  it.  Several  incidents  in  it  are  found 
only  in  this  Gospel.  The  force  of  the  answer  respecting  the 
Galilseans,  and  those  on  whom  the  tower  of  Siloam  fell,  as  cor- 
recting a  tendency,  strong  then  and  strong  always,  to  determine 
the  condition  of  individuals  from  the  events  which  befal  them, 
has  been  always  acknowledged  ;  not  enough  stress  perhaps  has 
been  laid  upon  the  clause,  "  Except  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  like- 
wise perish."  He  does  not  teach  them  to  think  lightly  of  such 
occurrences  as  those  which  were  reported  to  him  ;  they  were 
what  the  Jews  considered  them,  divine  visitations  ;  signs  and 
tokens  of  the  divine  mind  ;  but  they  were  signs,  not  about  those 
who  perished,  but  to  the  nation  and  to  each  member  of  the 
nation  who  heard  of  them  ;  warnings  of  a  like  punishment  which 
Roman  governors  or  the  powers  of  nature  might  be  appointed  to 
bring   upon    covetous,    self-righteous,    hypocritical    stewards    of 


1 86  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

God's  mercies  to  mankind.  When  we  draw  any  lesson  from  this 
part  of  the  discourse,  we  turn  it  into  a  warning  of  j^unishment  in 
a  future  world  ;  we  do  not  see  how  directly  our  Lord  denounced 
a  judgment  in  this  world  upon  a  people  which  is  proud  of  its 
privileges,  and  is  only  making  them  an  excuse  for  judging  and 
despising  others. 

In  this  sense  the  parable  of  the  fig-tree  follows  most  naturally 
upon  the  last  words.  Every  preparatory  warning  of  the  coming 
judgment  was  a  voice  saying  of  the  barren  tree,  "  Cut  it  down  ; 
why  cumbereth  it  the  ground  ?  "  and  contained  at  the  same  time 
the  petition,   "Let  it  alone  this  year  also." 

I  have  observed  already,  that  the  habit  of  mind  which  pro- 
duced the  Pharisaical  doctrine  respecting  the  Sabbath  is  repre- 
sented in  the  Gospels,  not  as  an  excess  of  good,  but  as  essen- 
tially, radically  evil ;  hateful  to  God  ;  not  to  be  tolerated  through 
fear  of  weakening  the  authority  of  the  commandment ;  but  to  be 
regarded  with  "  anger  "  as  subversive  of  it.  Nowhere  should 
we  more  look  for  one  of  our  Lord's  solemn,  practical  protests 
against  this  detestable  temper  than  here.  For  nothing  more 
proved  the  fig-tree  to  be  rotten  at  the  core,  incapable  of  bearing 
any  wholesome  fruits. 

I  have  commented  already  on  the  two  parables  which  follow.* 
The  Mustard-seed,  I  have  said,  is  common  to  the  Evangelists, 
being  equally  important  as  explaining  the  expansion  of  the  uni- 
versal out  of  the  national  kingdom,  as  the  process  of  develop- 
ment in  the  universal.  If  I  have  .been  right  in  following  the 
judgment  of  many  wise  men  respecting  the  use  of  the  word 
"leaven,"  it  was  almost  needful  that  the  working  of  the  true 
principle  should  not  be  exhibited  without  an  allusion  to  the 
false,  which  in  every  age  would  work  with  it  and  beside  it. 

The  terrible  announcements  in  the  previous  discourse  were 
likely  enough  to  produce  the  kind  of  anxiety  out  of  which  the 
question-  would  proceed,   "  Lord,  are  there  few  that  be   saved  ?  " 

*  The  leaven  has  been  spoken  of  too  much  as  if  it  occurred  on!}-  in  St. 
Matthew.     I  would  beg  the  reader  to  correct  that  mistake. 


ST.    LUKE.  187 

This  often-repeated  question  is  generally  censured  as  indicating 
a  desire  for  definite  information  on  a  subject  where  God  does 
not  please  that  we  should  have  it.  But  does  not  its  error  lay- 
rather  in  its  indefiniteiiess ;  in  the  willingness  of  those  who  utter 
it  to  be  content  without  a  clear  feeling  of  what  it  is  from  which 
they,  or  any,  need  to  be  saved  ?  Our  Lord  seems  to  treat  the 
error  in  this  way :  "Strive  to  enter  in  at  the  strait  gate:  for 
many,  I  say  unto  you,  will  seek  to  enter  in,  and  shall  not  be 
able."  The  strait  gate  of  sacrifice  ;  of  deliverance  from  self; — 
this  surely  was  that  which  those  who  were  self  seeking,  plotting 
for  their  own  salvation,  would  not  find.  And  since  the  self- 
seeking  tendency  of  the  Jew  was  that  which  on  this  occasion  and 
all  others  he  had  been  denouncing,  how  awfully  did  the  personal 
warning  chime  in  with  all  that  he  had  been  saying  of  the  excis- 
ion of  the  nation  !  How  needful  that  each  of  his  disciples 
should  then  and  always  be  seeking  to  know  Him  ;  since  a  time 
was  at  hand  when  the  Master  of  the  House  would  reveal  the 
secrets  of  every  heart,  and  when  it  would  be  nothing  to  have 
eaten  and  drunk  in  his  presence,  or  taught  in  his  streets.  Surely 
we  do  not  in  the  least  weaken  the  admonition  for  every 
time  and  every  land,  by  supposing  that  it  had  a  direct  and 
remarkable  application  to  that  age  ;  that  the  Son  of  Man  was 
then  about  to  try  every  man  of  what  sort  he  was.  The  following 
words,  already  introduced  in  St.  Matthew  in  connection  with  the 
healing  of  the  centurion's  servant,  "  There  shall  be  weeping  and 
gnashing  of  teeth,  &c.,  and  they  shall  come  from  the  east  and 
from  the  west,"  would  have  been  quite  inappropriate  here  if  the 
disciples  had  not  intended  to  connect  the  thoughts  which 
concerned  their  own  personal  life  with  the  history  and  destiny 
of  their  country. 

It  was  the  same  day,  when  the  same  thoughts  were  filling  our 
Lord's  heart,  that  the  messengers  came  to  say,  "  Get  thee  out ; 
for  Herod  will  kill  thee."  The  answer  is  "Go  and  tell  that  fox, 
I  must\^'3iW  to-day  and  to-morrow,  and  the  day  following."  The 
men  of  Galilee  cannot  kill  me.  "  A  prophet  cannot  perish  out 
of  Jerusalem."     The   deep   solemn   music  of  the   speech  which 


1 88  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

follows  has  entered  into  the  hearts  of  hundreds  of  thousands. 
They  have  received  it  in  the  best  and  truest  v/ay,  as  a  testimony 
of  Christ's  care  and  love  for  e^en  the  most  worthless,  as  a  de- 
claration that  those  who  are  not  gathered  under  his  wings  choose 
to  be  separate.  But  though  this  must  be  the  force  of  the  words, 
we  do  ourselves  as  well  as  the  history,  in  its  letter  and  spirit,  an 
unspeakable  wrong,  if  we  forget  that  the  words  refer  to  an  actual 
city  ;  and  that  the  curse  upon  that  city  was  that  of  being  left  to 
be  the  victim  of  its  own  self-will,  party-spirit,  hypocrisy. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

Another  instance  of  healing  on  the  Sabbath-day  reminds  us 
that  we  are  still  occupied  with  Pharisaical  corruptions  ;  that 
Christ  is  laying  his  axe  to  the  root  of  them  The  discourse  which 
follows  is  said  to  be  a  parable.  Yet  it  would  seem  to  be  only 
a  simple  comment  upon  the  desire  of  men  at  a  feast  to  seize  the 
chief  places.  I  apprehend  that  use  of  the  word  is  very  instruct- 
ive. The  parable  never  excludes  a  plain  direct  meaning.  It  is 
not  worthless  for  the  particular  case  to  which  it  refers.  But 
it  takes  that  case  as  the  manifestation  of  a  law  applicable  to  a 
number  of  much  higher  cases,  belonging  to  the  inner  as 
well  as  the  outward  world.  That  habit  of  self-seeking  which 
discovered  itself  in  the  struggle  for  the  uppermost  places  at  the 
feast,  was  the  one  which  was  undermining  the  Jewish  nation,  be- 
cause it  is  the  canker  at  the  root  of  humanity  itself,  the  great 
anti-christian,  ungodly  principle.  It  was  not  therefore  the  mere 
accident  of  a  feast  going  forward  which  led  our  Lord  to  pass 
from  this  parable  to  his  admonition,  "  when  thou  makest  a  sup- 
per, call  not  thy  friends  nor  thy  brethren,  etc."  I  do  not  under- 
value the  observation,  that  our  Lord  always  used  passing  out- 
ward occurrences  as  texts  of  His  discourse.  It  is  a  key  to  much 
that  we  read  in  these  Gospels,  and  points  out  their  infinite  value 
as  guides  to  the  teacher.  But  the  external  occurrence  is  only 
an  index  to  the  more  inward  parts  of  His  discourse.     If  He  came 


ST.    LUKE.  189 

to  destroy  the  self-seeking,  competitive  spirit,  which  makes  each 
man  crave  to  be  above  his   neighbor,  He  came  to  destroy  an- 
other result  of  that  same  spirit,  which  makes  men's  acts  of  kind- 
ness towards  each  other  the  result  of  a  calculating  spirit,  the  de- 
sire to  be  recompensed.     And  let  us  not  fancy  that  our   Lord  is 
merely  giving  that  principle  another  direction,  that  he  is  raismg 
selfishness  t"o  a  higher  power,  when   He  says,  "  Thou   shalt  be 
recompensed  at  the  resurrection  of  the  just."     For  in  all  his  dis- 
courses He  had  been  teaching  that  this  recompense  is  the  bemg 
like  God,  who  sends  His  rain  upon  the  just  and  upon  the  unjust, 
upon  the  good  and  the  evil.     He   would   not   indeed  get  rid  of 
the  name  or  idea  of  a  recompense.     The  one  is  worked  into  the 
very  tissue  of  language,  because   the   other  belongs   to   the  very- 
constitution  of  man  and  of  the  universe.     The  notion  of  exclud- 
ing rewards  is  fantastical  and  absurd.     But  they  may  rest  upon 
a  principle  the  very  opposite  to  selfishness,  upon  the  divine  order 
of  which  selfishness  is  the  subversion.     And  I  am  bold  to  say 
that  there  is  no  case  in  all  our  Lord's  discourses,  in  which   the 
recompense  which  he  proposes  to   man,  does   not  consist  mainly 
in  the  deliverance  from  the  selfishness  which  is  his  great  torment 
and  oppression,  but  upon  which,  alas,  the  followers  and  ministers 
of  Christ  have  been  content  to  build   their  notion  of  His  king- 
dom in  this  world  and  in  the  world  to  come. 

The  topic  of  the  feast  is  not  exhausted.  A  man  in  the  crowd 
felt  instinctively  that  a  society  in  which  men  should  invite  the 
poor  and  the  blind  and  the  halt,  must  be  a  kingdom  of  heaven  : 
our  Lord,  he  knew,  had  said  that  such  a  kingdom  was  at  hand  ; 
"  Blessed,"  he  exclaimed,  "  are  these  that  shall  eat  bread  in  it, 
who  shall  be  permitted  to  come  to  its  festival."  Hence,  the 
transition  was  natural  to  that  spiritual  feast  which  especially  be- 
longs to  the  kingdom  of  Heaven.  According  to  the  common 
notions  which  were  current  among  the  religious  Jews,  and  are 
current  among  ourselves,  this  feast  should  be  represented  as  far 
more  select  than  the  other.  In  proportion  as  its  blessings  are 
deeper,  more  removed  from  the  sensual  apprehensions  of  men, 
we   should   suppose  that  the   invitations  to   it  would  be    rarer. 


190  LECTURE    I.       PART  II. 

Common  food  might  be  thrown  away  upon  common  people,  ce- 
lestial dainties  would  be  reserved  for  a  special  band,  utterly  un- 
like the  vulgar,  and  separated  .from  them.  Such  notions  are 
very  natural.  There  must  be  a  truth  latent  in  them,  and  yet 
there  is  the  most  intense  falsehood  latent  in  them,  the  very 
.falsehood  which  undermined  the  Jewish  nation,  and  has  been 
at  all  times  undermining  the  Christian  Church.  The  spiritual  is 
not  less  universal  than  the  outward  feast.  The  inward  principle 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  revealed  in  the  summons  of  the  poor 
and  halt  and  blind  to  the  material  supper.  This  is  surely  the 
great  doctrine  of  the  parable,  which  comes  out  here  in  quiie  an- 
other aspect  than  that  which  it  bears  in  St.  Matthew,  partly  from 
the  incidents  and  discourses  which  border  upon  it,  partly  from 
some  differences  in  its  structure  which  are  obvious  to  every 
reader.  The  king  making  a  marriage  for  his  son,  a  cardinal 
point  in  St.  Matthew's  parable,  is  wanting  here.  It  would  evi- 
dently have  been  out  of  place,  and  drawn  the  mind  away  from 
the  subject  with  which  St.  Luke  desired  to  impress  it.  Again, 
the  excuses  in  St.  Matthew  are  merely  general  ;  here  they  are 
distinct  and  dramatical,  exhibiting  the  different  reasons  which 
lead  men  to  refuse  the  blessings,  the  universal  blessings,  which 
are  lying  most  near  to  them,  that  they  ma,y  grasp  at  distant  ac- 
cidental goods  which  they  can  call  their  own,  and  from  which 
they  can  exclude  their  fellows.  Thirdly,  one  very  characteristic 
point  in  St.  Matthew's  parable,  the  insult  and  murder  of  the 
messengers  and  the  destruction  of  the  city,  which  we  might  have 
looked  for  from  the  general  character  of  the  discourses  in  thi , 
part  of  St.  Luke,  is  passed  over ;  for  this  too,  I  imagine,  belongs 
to  the  idea  of  the  marriage  of  the  son,  but  would  not  have  added 
any  thing  to  our  impression  respecting  the  feast  as  such,  and  the 
comprehensiveness  of  the  invitations  to  it.  Lastly,  the  fact  of 
the  man  not  having  the  wedding-garment,  which  illustrates  very 
strikingly  the  doctrine,  "Many  are  called,  but  few  are  chosen," 
is  not  wanted  to  explain  the  great  truth,  that  men  lose  this  feast 
because  they  prefer  their  own  selfish  enjoyments  to  those  which 
they  mist  share  with   men  who   come  from  the   streets  and  the 


ST.    LUKE.  ^  J()\ 

highwa3^s.  I  should  recommend  the  comparison  of  the  two  forms 
of  this  parable  as  one  of  the*  best  exercises  for  the  purpose  of  ar- 
riving at  a  knowledge  of  the  distinct  objects  and  general  design 
of  the  Evangelists,  as  well  as  for  ascertaining  the  nature  of  the 
parables  in  themselves. 

I  have  spoken  already  upon  the  passage  which  follows.  Every 
one  has  noticed  that  it  is  more  emphatic  in    St.  Luke  than  else- 
where.    It  is  not  "  Whoso  loveth  father  or  mother  more   than 
me,"  but,  "  Whosoever  hateth  not  father  and   mother,  and  his 
own  life  also,  cannot  be  my  disciple."     We  owe  much,  I  believe, 
to  this  variation.     If  we  had  only  the  milder  expression,  there 
might  be  a  justification  for  much  of  the   language   and  conduct 
of  those  in  the  Romish  communion  and  other  communions,  who 
have  maintained  that  what  they  call  religious  duties  are  continu- 
ally at  variance  with  human  duties,  and  that  the   one  must  give 
place  to  the  other.     Therefore  it  is  always  a   question   to  be  de- 
cided by  a  morbid  conscience,  or  by  a  priest,  when  this  struggle 
between    the  greater  and  the  lesser  love   arises,  and  how   the 
sacrifice  is  to  be  made.     But  no  confessor  or  priest  has  courage 
to  say,  meaning  what  he  says,   "  You  must /lafe  father  and  mother 
in  order  to  save  your  soul  ;  "  only,   "  You  must  avoid  the  excess 
of  love  which  would  betray  you."     But  Christ  says  this.     You 
contend  that  His  words  must  not  be  explained  away.     Then  do 
not  explain  them  away.     Find  a  meaning  for  these  along  with 
those  other  words,   "Yea,  and  his  own  soul  also,"  and  you  will 
be  worth  listening  to.     I  conceive  that  we   are  commanded   to 
hate  ourselves,  our  souls   and   bodies,  and   every  thing  that  we 
prize  merely  as  our  own,  in   order  that  we  may  have   that  love 
which  is  in   Christ,   and   which   embraces   father,   mother,  wife, 
children,  our  own  souls,  as  all  connected   with   Him,  and  based 
upon  His  relation   to   them  and  to  us.     In  this  way  the  passage 
would  be  in  exact   harmony  with  all  that   has  preceded  it.     The 
Jew  was  resting  his  religion,  his  politics,  his  morality,  his  domes- 
tic affections,  upon  a  ground  of  self.     They  would  therefore   all 
go  to  ruin,  as  we  know  they  did.     Christ  came   as  the  true  root 
of  humanity,  the  real   foundation  of   all   religion,  politics,  moral- 


10)2  LECTURE  I.   PART  II. 

itv,  domestic  affections,  tlie  only  reconciler  of  them  with  each 
other,  the  only  security  for  their  permanence.  If  any  one  would 
be  His  disciple,  he  must  throw  aside  the  other  principle  alto- 
gether, he  must  seek  to  banish  it  from  his  life.  If  he  did  not, 
he  would  find  that  he  was  engaging  in  a  war  with  an  enemy  who 
would  be  far  too  mighty  for  him  ;  he  would  be  sitting  down  to 
build  a  tower  which  he  could  not  finish.  He  would  certainly 
send  an  embassy  and  desire  conditions  of  peace  with  the  great 
spiritual  enemy  of  Christ  and  of  men,  if  he  was  not  ready  to 
strip  himself  of  all  which  he  had,  to  give  up  his  own  self,  his  own 
righteousness,  every  thing  W'hich  exalted  him  above  another. 
Men  are  the  salt  of  the  earth,  they  keep  it  from  putrefying 
while  they  have  the  divine,  life-giving  principle  in  them.  All  the 
selfishness  of  the  world  has  not  been  suffered  to  destroy  it ;  for 
there  has  been  a  seed  proclaiming  God,  and  not  self,  to  be 
the  ground  of  its  institutions,  the  end  of  which  they  exist.  But 
if  that  divine  seed  becomes  itself  infected  with  the  maxim  and 
principle  of  the  corrupt  world,  if  the  religion  of  the  el'ect  be- 
comes another  and  the  most  concentrated  form  of  selfishness, 
how  are  they  the  salt  of  the  earth  ?  how  can  they  ever  become 
so  ?  "  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,"  said  our  Lord,  and  His 
words  do  not  pass  away,  "  let  him  hear." 


CHAPTER  XV. 

I  might  rest  all  that  I  have  said  respecting  the  peculiarities  of 
St.  Luke  upon  this  chapter,  the  one  in  his  Gospel  which  has 
probably  exercised  most  influence  upon  the  mind  of  Christendom 
in  all  periods.  But  I  should  be  sorry,  for  the  sake  of  using  this 
advantage,  to  separate  this  passage  from  those  which  precede  it, 
or  to  suggest  the  notion  that  there  is  any  break  in  the  line  of  the 
writer's  thoughts.  The  exclusiveness  of  the  Pharisee,  and  of  the 
Jewish  nation  as  embodied  in  him,  has  been  brought  out  before 
us  in  all  that  we  have  lately  been  reading.  That  exclusiveness 
has  been  exhibited  as  the  anti-christian  principle,  the   one  wdiich 


ST.    LUKE.  193 

must  hinder  the  Jew  from  believing  in  Him  who  was  come  as  the 
King  and  Shepherd  of  men.  It  is  in  this  character,  I  conceive, 
that  St.  Luke  presents  that  sin  which  St.  Matthew  makes  us  feel 
to  be  an  outrage  upon  the  law  and  the  prophets,  the  fulfilment 
and  completion  of  all  the  evils  which  they  had  denounced. 

The  parable  of  "  The  Prodigal  Son "  has  seemed  to  most 
persons  to  contain  a  hint  of  the  Gentile  economy,  as  well  as  an 
implicit  condemnation  of  the  Jew,  who  would  not  have  his  brother 
received  back  with  music  and  dancing.  Yet  this  has  been  rather 
the  feeling  of  commentators  than  of  the  people.  They  have  pro- 
tested against  any  view  of  the  parable  which  shall  rob  them  of 
its  distinct  personal  application,  which  shall  make  it  not  a  mes- 
sage to  the  individual  prodigal,  to  all  who  will  claim  for  them- 
selves that  character.  They  are  right.  The  sure  witness  of  the 
heart  that  this  parable  expresses  the  very  inmost  mind  of  God, 
cannot  be  set  aside  to  make  it  square  with  any  interpretations, 
however  reasonable,  however  seemingly  consonant  with  the  cir- 
cumstances and  intention  of  the  Evangelist.  But  if  we  really 
look  to  this  discourse  of  our  Lord's  for  a  revelation  of  the  divine 
purpose,  we  shall  find  that  all  the  different  views  of  it  which  be- 
come in  themselves  either  dry  and  scholastic,  or  narrow  and  par- 
tial, are  pervaded  by  a  higher  light  which  harmonizes  them. 

In  the  first  place,  we  should  take  the  incidents  of  the  story 
simply  as  they  stand.  The  parable  is  not  a  tale  about  some  dis- 
tant beings.  Actual  publicans  and  sinners  were  about  our  Lord, 
actual  Pharisees  were  murmuring,  "  This  Man  receiveth  sinners, 
and  eateth  with  them."  Of  these  sinners  our  Lord  surely  speaks 
when  He  says,  that  the  shepherd  leaves  the  ninety  and  nine  in 
the  wilderness  to  seek  the  one  sheep  that  was  lost ;  of  these, 
when  He  speaks  of  the  woman  sweeping  the  house  diligently  till 
she  finds  her  piece  of  money.  We  shall  misunderstand  St.  Luke 
greatly,  and  St.  Paul  more,  if  we  suppose  that  they  concern 
themselves  chiefly  about  Gentiles  as  such.  They  are  born  Jews. 
All  their  heart  and  sympathies  are  essentially  Jewish.  But  they 
have  found  out  that  to  be  Jews  they  must  be  men.  It  is  a  Gos- 
pel to  men,  a  covenant  with   men   they  require,  and   therefore 

13 


194  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

with  the  Gentiles,  or  with  all  nations.  The  remark  is  surely  ob- 
vious enough.  My  reader  may  almost  smile  that  I  state  it  with 
so  much  emphasis.  But  I  do  not  think  he  knows  how  much  the 
commentators,  how  much  the  Christian  world,  how  much  he  and 
I  have  forgotten  it,  or  what  incalculable  confusion  and  loss  have 
ensued  from  this  forgetfulness.  If  we  can  once  fairly  rid  our- 
selves of  it,  I  believe  the  Gospel  of  St.  Luke,  and  the  Epistles  of 
St.  Paul,  will  come  out  to  us  as  quite  new  books,  new,  though 
they  are  essentially  the  old  books,  with  the  very  words  we  have 
read  from  childhood,  taken  even  more  literally  and  simply  than 
we  took  them  then. 

With  this  one  thought  on  our  mind,  we  shall  come  to  the  story 
of  the  younger  and  the  elder  son  without  the  least  fear  that  we 
shall  be  cheated  of  any  of  its  individual  significance,  if  it  should 
comprehend  the  widest  views  of  God's  purposes  in  the  history  of 
the  world.  If  the  prodigal  is  spoken  of  from  the  very  first  as  a 
son,  if  the  hard-hearted  elder  brother  in  the  field  is  told,  "  all 
that  I  have  is  thine,"  we  must  be  prepared  to  ask  ourselves  man- 
fully, whether  these  are  not  the  primary  facts  and  laws  of  the 
New  Dispensation,  whether  the  Gospel  is  not  a  claim  for  men  as 
men  to  be  sons  of  God  ;  an  assertion  that  they  must  be  prodi- 
gals, joining  themselves  to  citizens  of  the  country  and  feeding 
swine,  till  they  know  that  to  be  the  case  ;  and  that  if  they  do 
know  it,  the  condition  of  their  enjoying  it  and  being  the  better 
for  it,  is  that  they  should  recognize  the  right  of  all,  the  most  out- 
cast, to  the  title,  and  should  rejoice  when  they  come  back  w'ith  a 
new  and  childlike  delight  to  claim  it.  The  view  of  God's  pur- 
poses in  all  His  dealings  with  mankind,  which  the  parable  thus 
considered  sets  forth,  is  indeed  most  comfortable  to  'the  reader 
of  Gentile  as  well  as  Jewish  history  ;  but  it  interprets  still  more 
remarkably  the  modern  world  than  the  old,  the  right  which 
Christendom  has  had  to  claim  for  all  its  sons  and  daughters  son- 
ship  to  God,  the  impossibility  of  attaching  any  thing  but  a  narrow 
and  formal  meaning  to  the  ordinance  which  stamps  us  Chris- 
tians, if  it  does  not  proclaim  that  truth  to  each  one  of  us.  At 
the  same   time  it  contains   the   most  earnest  encourac:emc:"it  to 


ST.    LUKE. 


195 


spread  far  and  wide  the  Gospel  (that  is  to  say,  the  good  news  to 
men  of  their  sonship),  and  a  warning  of  the  great  guilt  by  turn- 
ing Baptism  into  a  plea  for  exclusiveness,  into  a  denial  of  that 
human  privilege  which  it  asserts  and  upon  which  its  glory  rests. 
But  along  with  this  general  force,  the  parable  carries  in  it  the 
history  of  each  man  who  comes  to  himself;  showing  how  that 
return  to  human  sanity  can  be  nothing  else  than  the  discovery 
of  an  actual  Father,  how  this  discovery  implies  the  acknowledg- 
ment of  an  attraction  and  influence  proceeding  from  Him,  a  con- 
fession that  He  has  sought  for  the  lost  sheep,  has  swept  dili- 
gently for  the  piece  of  money.  And  here  we  see  how  the  lines 
of  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Luke,  starting  from  different  points, 
meet  and  coincide.  The  one  shows  us  Christ  revealing  a  Father, 
the  other  Christ  bestowing  a  Spirit ;  but  the  Spirit  guides  the 
lost  child  to  the  Father  ;  the  moment  his  heart  is  awakened  by 
that  touch,  he  knows  from  whence  it  must  have  proceeded. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

The  covetousness  of  the  Jew  has  been  brought  before  us  al- 
ready under  various  aspects.  We  have  seen  that  it  is  the  sin 
which  the  New  Testament  generally — this  Gospel  particularly — 
imputes  to  him.  We  must  not,  under  pretence  of  finding  out  a 
more  spiritual  signification,  shrink  from  giving  the  word  its  most 
vulgar  force  as  denoting  the  mere  craving  for  money  and  grasp- 
ing it  when  obtained.  On  the  other  hand,  we  must  not  limit  the 
disease  by  this  manifestation  of  it.  The  worst  form  of  it,  that 
which  touched  the  vitals  of  the  nation,  was  the  religious  form  ; 
but  those  who  exhibited  this  would  often  exhibit  the  other  ;  if 
they  did  not,  they  would  communicate  it  to  persons  whose  tastes 
and  edu(!ation  were  different  from  their  own.  These  remarks 
are  very  necessary  to  the  understanding  of  this  chapter. 

The  two  parables  in  it  ought,  I  conceive,  to  be  considered  to- 
gether. The  Jew  was  a  steward  who,  by  his  dispensation  of 
God's  bounties,  whether  material  or  spiritual,  was  to  show  what 


196  LECTURE    I,       PART    II. 

He  is  and  what  He  requires  of  those  who  possess  advantages 
which  their  fellow-men  have  not.*  This  steward  is  accused  to  his 
Lord  that  he  has  wasted  his  goods.  They  have  been  in  the 
strictest  sense  wasted,  because,  according  to  the  law  under 
which  they  are  held,  they  must  decay  and  grow  less  if  they  are 
not  scattered  abroad.  The  steward  is  called  to  account ;  God 
makes  him  feel  in  himself  that  he  has  violated  a  trust.  The  hour 
is  coming  when  he  will  be  cast  out  of  it.  What  shall  he  do  ? 
He  cannot  confess  his  fault ;  he  cannot  begin  a  new  course  of 
effort.  But  he  can  use  his  commission  as  a  means  of  getting 
friends.  He  can  make  men,  in  whom  there  has  been  kindled 
an  earnest  sense  of  obligation  to  some  divine  teacher  and  friend, 
feel  that  these,  obligations  are  less  than  they  had  fancied.  He 
can  destroy  in  the  peoples  of  the  earth  the  religion  which  they 
have  ;  he  can  rob  them  of  that  conscience  and  moral  instinct 
with  which  God  had  endowed  them.  Who  can  doubt  that  this 
was  the  effect  of  the  Jew's  presence  and  false  witness  in  a  num- 
ber of  heathen  lands  ?  Who  can  doubt  that  his  unbelief  in  these 
idols  helped  to  deprive  the  heathens  of  the  flickering,  insecure 
faith  which  they  had,  while  his  own  godlessness  supplied  nothing 
in  the  place  of  it  ?  How  strictly  was  this  putting  fifty  measures 
of  wheat  or  of  oil  where  the  conscience  had  written  a  hundred  ! 
And  yet  was  the  steward  wrong  in  thinking  that  he  was  meant 
to  win  the  love  of  these  people  about  him  ?  or  that  the  treasures 
which  God  had  given  him  were  to  be  the  means  of  winning  it  ? 
No,  surely,  he  was  right ;  he  made  the  discovery  in  a  roundabout 
way,  which,  if  he  had  made  it  before,  would  have  changed  him 
from  an  unfaithful  into  a  faithful  servant.  If  he  had  dispensed 
his  master's  wealth  as  he  was  meant  to  do,  instead  of  fancying 
that  it  was  given  for  his  own  use  and  behoof — instead  of  think- 
ing that  to  possess  it  was  the  great  blessing  of  all — he  would 
have  found  the  mammon  of  unrighteousness,  which  proved  a 
millstone  about  his  neck,  a  mighty  blessing.  And  I  say  unto 
you,  my  disciples.  Use  the  money  which  God  gives  you  for  Him, 
not  for  yourselves,  and  it  will  bring  in  friends  who  will  not  merely 
give  you  the  temporary  refuge  which  the  cast-off  servant  sought, 


ST.    LUKE.  197 

but  will  receive  you  in  your  hours  of  weakness  and  sorrow  into 
their  very  heart  of  hearts,  will  bear  you  with  them  when  they  are 
kneeling  in  the  presence  of  their  Father. 

That  most  important  hint  or  digression  connects  the  meaning 
and  moral  of  the  parable  with  the  coming  age,  makes  it  an  ex- 
planation of  some  of  the  contradictory  facts  in  the  history  of 
Christendom — the  position,  habits,  and  influence  of  Jews  in  the 
modern  world  being  of  course  not  the  least  remarkable — and  en- 
forces it  with  especial  emphasis  upon  any  nation  which  is  brought 
into  contact  with  others  in  merchandise  or  government,  and 
which  has  a  large  store  of  the  mammon  of  unrighteousness,  a 
great  disposition  to  worship  it.  But  we  must  not  let  our  Lord's 
passing  commendation  of  the  steward,  valuable  as  it  is  in  bring- 
ing out  the  sense  of  the  parable,  cause  us  to  forget  that  he  pro- 
ceeds at  once  to  the  words,  "  He  that  is  unjust  in  the  least  is 
unjust  also  in  much  ;  and  if  ye  have  been  unfaithful  with  the 
unrighteous  mammon,  who  shall  commit  to  you  the  true  riches  .'' " 
or  that  he  then  introduces  a  sentence  apparently  out  of  all  con- 
nection with  what  has  gone  before  :  "  The  law  and  the  prophets 
were  until  John  :  since  that  time  the  kingdom  of  heaven  suffer- 
eth  violence,  and  the  violent  take  it  by  force.  It  is  easier  for 
heaven  and  earth  to  pass,  than  for  one  tittle  of  the  law  to  fail. 
Whoso  putteth  away  his  wife,  and  marrieth  another,  committeth 
adultery;  and  whoso  ;narrieth  her  that  is  put  away,  committeth 
adultery." 

I  apprehend  that  this  association  of  thoughts,  puzzling  as  it 
may  seem  to  an  ordinary  critic,  is  one  which  the  conscience  of 
the  hearer  will  not  have  been  slow  to  recognize  and  justify. 
Mammon-worship  was  becoming  the  only  worship  of  the  Jew  ; 
his  subsequent  history  was  already  foreshadowed  in  the  tenden- 
cies of  that  time.  Before  he  could  obtain  the  true  inward  riches, 
the  riches  of  the  heavenly  kingdom,  he  must  have  some  sense  of 
the  responsibility  attaching  to  his  outward  treasures  ;  he  must 
know  that  they  are  not  his  own.  Ever  since  John's  time  the 
message  about  the  kingdom  of  heaven  had  been  stirring  men's 
hearts  mightily  ;  there  had  been  a  pressure  into  it ;  a  craving  to 


198  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

know  what  it  was.  And  those  who  did  desire  this  knowledge 
with  all  their  hearts  would  obtain  it ;  the  violent  would  take  it 
by  force.  But  there  were  a  number  who  thought  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  a  mere  kingdom  of  privileges,  where  the  rigidness  of 
the  law  would  be  relaxed,  where  men  would  be  permitted  licenses 
which  they  had  not  under  Moses  and  the  prophets.  Far  indeed 
was  that  from  being  the  case.  One  tittle  of  the  law  could  not 
fail.  Nay,  there  were  privileges  and  permissions  granted  under 
that  law  which  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven  could  have  no  place. 
The  law  would  be  fulfilled,  for  instance,  by  a  more  severe  en- 
forcement of  the  bond  of  marriage — that  bond  which  Jews  and 
Gentiles  at  this  time  were  so  continually  breaking — than  it  had 
been  wise  or  possible  for  Moses  to  make.  Thus  St.  Luke  fulfils 
his  own  special  task.  While  he  is  denouncing  the  sins  and  fore- 
telling the  judgment  of  the  Old  Dispensation,  he  is  asserting  the 
principles  and  conditions  of  the  New  ;  he  is  showing  how  essen- 
tially that  dispensation  would  be  one  of  inward  and  universal 
principle  and  practice,  not  of  strict  rule  and  occasional  excep- 
tions. 

But  I  said  that  the  second  parable  could  not  be  separated  from 
the  first.  That  the  Gentile  world  is  set  forth  in  Lazarus,  the 
Jewish  nation  in  the  man  clothed  with  purple  and  fine  linen,  has 
been  an  old  belief,  which  a  careful  student  of  the  Gospel  as  an 
orderly  narrative  can  hardly  avoid  ;  but  which,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  Prodigal  Son,  has  been  encountered  by  the  witness  in  the 
consciences  of  Christians,  that  the  story  must  be  meant  for  them- 
selves. If  I  had  the  least  notion  that  it  applied  less  directly  to 
us,  because  it  brought  out  the  contrast  with  which  the  Evangel- 
ist is  always  busy,  and  applied  that  contrast  to  the  hearts  of  the 
Jews  who  were  standing  round  our  Lord,  I  should  suspect  my- 
self and  better  interpreLers  of  a  mistake,  if  the  evidence  were 
ever  so  strong  in  our  favor.  But  I  apprehend  the  ordinary  way 
of  looking  at  the  parable,  as  if  it  were  merely  a  story  about  two 
individual  men — of  making  it  in  fact  not  a  parable  at  all, — de- 
stroys the  point  of  it  as  bearing  upon  our  own  lives,  and  gives 
us  excuses  for  escaping  from  its  warnings.     For  we   say  to   our- 


ST.    LUKE.  iQQ 


selves,  that  after  all  it  is.  only  a  story.     Having  asserted  its  lit- 
eral meaning,  we   are  afraid  of  taking  it  literally,  lest  we   should 
sanction  opinions  about  the  state  and  feelings  of  the   departed 
which  we   think   unsafe.     I   am  far  from  pronouncing  that  they 
would  be  unsafe,  or  from  sanctioning  the  dangerous   notion  that 
we  are  to  shrink  from  the  strictest  meaning  of  Scripture,  lest  it 
should  involve   us  in  Romish   opinions  or  any  other.     But  I  am 
satisfied  that  the   English  public   do  not  take  the  words   plainly 
and  simply  as   the   record  of  a  fact  j  and  therefore  they  cannot 
complain  of  any  who   are   influenced  by  a  consideration  of  the 
context  to  regard  it  as  a  parable  respecting  races   and  dispensa- 
tions, believing  that  in  this  way  the   individual  truth  and   moral 
of  it  will  be  only  the  more  apparent.      Certainly  the  words  "  pur- 
ple and  fine  linen,"  would  naturally  denote  to  any  Jew  the  gar- 
ments of  the  king  and  the  priest ;  the   being  carried  by  angels 
into  Abraham's   bosom,  the   adoption  into  the   covenant  which 
God  made   with  Abraham.     This   would  be   the   ordinary  strict 
way  of  interpreting   a  parable  ;  to  follow  its   symbols  carefully, 
and  render  them   according  to  the  nature  of  'the  subject  from' 
which  they  are  drawn.     By  doing  so,  I  apprehend  we  understand 
the  covetousness  of  Dives  in  its  heights   and  in  its  depths  ;  the 
covetousness    of   religious  privileges  which  he   valued  because 
others  were  not   the  sharers   of  them  ;  the  covetousness  which 
made  money  the   standard  of  worth,  the  conditions  under  which 
it  was  held  the   rule  by  which  all  blessings  were  measured.     To 
say  that  this  was  the  habit  of   a  nation,  is  not  surely  to   say  that 
it  was  not  the   habit  of  a  given   individual  in  that   nation,  any 
more   than  we  say  that   an   actual   dog  may  not  have   licked  an 
actual  beggar's  sores,  because  we  take  that  to  be  a  beautiful  sym- 
bol of  the  sympathy  which  outward  nature,  and  the  animal  crea- 
tion, expressed  for  those  whom  God's  chosen   witnesses  were 
neglecting  ;  of  the  witness  they  bore  of  His  care  and  love   to* 
hearts  which  could  have  received  no  impression  respecting  Him 
from  those  who  were  sent  into  the  world  to  declare   His   name, 
,and  show  forth  His  image,  except  that  He  was   exclusive,  capri- 
cious, hard-hearted.     Nor  can  I  see  how  the  belief  that  the  para- 


200  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

ble  speaks  of  the  translation  of  the  other  nations  to  the  privileges 
of  which  the  Jews  showed  themselves  unmindful,  takes  away  the 
edge  of  its  application  to  those  nations,  seeing  that  five  brethren 
are  spoken  of  who  might  come  into  the  same  place  of  torment 
into  which  their  elder  brother  had  come,  unless  they  took  warn- 
ing from  the  judgment  upon  his  covetousness  and  cruelty.  And 
if  the  highest  punishment  which  could  reach  him  was  to  be  ex- 
cluded from  the  office  he  had  abused,  to  be  stripped  of  his 
priestly  and  royal  robes,  to  be  left  to  feel  what  a  gulf  his  cove- 
tousness had  put  between  him  and  whatever  was  pure  and  loving 
in  the  past  or  the  present,  I  cannot  understand  how  this  lesson 
bears  less  directly  upon  each  one  of  us,  who  under  whatever 
color  is  making  self  an  idol,  because  we  feel  that  it  also  bears 
upon  the  state  and  destiny  of  Christendom  and  of  every  Church 
in  it. 

CHAPTER    XVII. 

This  parable  has  taught  us  that  the  sin  of  the  New  Dispensa- 
tion would  be  the  same  as  that  of  the  Old.  The  covetousness 
of  the  Jew  had  caused  offences  innumerable  ;  the  same  cause 
would  always  produce  the  same  effects  ;  "  It  is  impossible  but 
that  offences  will  come  ;  but  w^oe  unto  him  through  whom  they 
come  !  "  Thus  I  connect  the  first  paragraph  of  this  chapter,  and 
the  lesson  respecting  the  means  of  avoiding  offences  which  we 
have  considered  at  large  in  St.  Matthew,  with  the  general  sub- 
ject of  our  Lord's  discourses  on  his  way  to  Jerusalem. 

The  passage  follows,  "  And  the  Apostles  said  unto  the  Lord, 
Increase  our  faith.  And  the  Lord  said,  "  If  ye  had  faith  as  a 
grain  of  mustard-seed,  ye  might  say  unto  this  sycamine-tree.  Be 
thou  plucked  up  by  the  root,  and  be  thou  planted  in  the  sea  ; 
and  it  should  obey  you.  But  wdiich  of  you,  having  a  servant 
plowing  or  feeding  cattle,  will  say  unto  him  by  and  by,  when  he 
is  come  from  the  field,  Go  and  sit  down  to  meat  ?  And  will  not 
rather  say  unto  him.  Make  ready  wherewith  I  may  sup,  and  gird 
thyself,  and  serve  me,  till  I  have   eaten  and  drunken  ;  and  after- 


ST.    LUKE.  201 

ward  thou  shalt  eat  and  drink  ?  Doth  he  thank  that  servant  be- 
cause he  did  the  things  that  were  commanded  him?  I  trow  not. 
So  likewise  ye,  when  ye  shall  have  done  all  those  things  which 
are  commanded  you,  say,  We  are  unprofitable  servants  :  we  have 
done  that  which  was  our  duty  to  do.  And  it  came  to  pass,  as 
he  went  to  Jerusalem,  that  he  passed  through  the  midst  of  Sama- 
ria and  Galilee."  This  passage  is  found  only  in  St.  Luke,  with 
the  exception  of  the  words,  "  If  ye  had  faith  as  a  grain  of  mus- 
tard-seed," which  has  been  noticed  among  the  passages  that  are 
common  to  all  the  Evangelists.  I  have  often  had  occasion  to 
remark  that  the  habit  of  mind  which  our  Lord  was  denouncing 
in  the  Jews  generally,  displayed  itself  in  various  forms  in  the 
Apostles,  and  that  he  was  destroying  those  seeds  of  it  in  them 
which  would  have  made  them  utterly  unfit  to  testify  against  it 
in"  their  countrymen.  Their  prayer  for  an  increase  of  faith, 
plausible  as  it  sounded,  He  seems  to  tell  us  was  itself  mixed  with 
covetous  desires,  which  are  the  great  antagonists  of  faith.  They 
wanted  to  have  a  great  amount  of  faith,  not  that  they  might  serve 
God  with  it,  but  themselves.  They  wanted  faith  as  a  something 
upon  which  they  could  plume  themselves,  and  which  would  set 
them  above  others ;  they  must  learn  that  God  gives  men  faith 
that  they  may  do  His  work,  not  that  they  may  have  a  feast  of 
their  own. 

We  are  especially  reminded  that  the  miracle  of  healing  the  ten 
lepers  was  on  the  way  to  Jerusalem.  The  facts  of  it  serve  better 
than  many  discourses,  as  an  intimation  to  the  Jew^  of  that  fact 
which  had  already  been  announced  in  the  parable  of  the  Good 
Samaritan,  that  there  was  more  openness  of  heart  to  receive 
God's  loving-kindness  in  those  who  were  outside  the  nation  and 
excluded  from  many  of  its  privileges,  than  in  those  who  had 
them  all.  The  importance  of  the  lesson  for  St.  Luke's  design, 
and  especially  for  this  part  of  his  narrative,  does  not  need  to  be 
pointed  out. 

If  the  follov/ing  passage  were  not  so  remarkably  illustrative  of 
this  design,  I  might  be  tempted  to  dwell  upon  it  for  another  pur- 
pose, because  it  so   strikingly  confirms  that  view  of  the  coming 


202  LECTURE    I.       PART    11. 

of  the  Son  of  Man,  and  of  the  revelation  of  His  Kingdom,  which 
I  deduced  from  the  account  of  the  last  days  in  the  three  Evan- 
gelists. St.  Luke  has  brought  here  several  of  the  passages  which 
the  other  two  introduce  into  the  discourse  respecting  the  temple 
and  its  goodly  buildings.  He  introduces  them  in  answer  to  a 
demand  of  the  Pharisees,  "  When  the  kingdom  of  God  should 
come  ?  "  The  answer  is,  "  The  kingdom  of  God  cometh  not  with 
observation  ;  for,  behold,  the  kingdom  of  God  is  wdthin  you." 
The  passage  is  often  quoted  ;  few  perhaps  .in  our  day  so  ofteii. 
But  it  is  always  quoted  with  a  reservation,  that  there  is  a  king- 
dom of  God  without  as  well  as  within,  and  that  all  the  passages 
in  the  Gospels  which  refer  to  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man, 
speak  of  that  outward  kingdom,  not  of  the  other.  How  does 
this  doctrine  accord  with  the  context  of  the  words  .''  St.  Luke 
immediately  proceeds  to  use  that  very  language,  which  occurs 
elsewhere,  as  the  description  of  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man, 
as  if  it  were  a  part  of  His  answer  to  the  Pharisees,  and  was  to 
expand  and  explain  His  condemnation  of  their  materialism. 
What  can  we  infer  from  these  words,  but  that  the  great  events 
in  the  outward  world  were  to  discover  that  kingdom  which  was 
not  to  come  with  observation  ;  that  they  would  bring  to  light 
that  kingdom  which  is  within,  lying  at  the  very  root  of  each  man's 
being  and  of  the  being  of  society,  the  order  which  God  had  es- 
tablished in  the  beginning,  and  which,  on  the  breaking  up  of  the 
outer  fabric  of  the  Jewish  polity,  would  come  forth  in  new  pow- 
er ?  That  the  gospel  of  the  Spirit  should  set  forth  this  truth  we 
might  well  expect  ;  that  the  Evangelist  of  the  new  and  human 
dispensation  should  record  the  words  which  declare  its  nature, 
and  its  permanent  eternal  foundation,  cannot  be  strange  ;  that 
such  an  announcement  of  the  new  and  true  Jerusalem  should 
accompany  the  series  of  warnings  which  were  preparing  Christ's 
disciples  for  His  rejection  in  the  old,  at  least  gives  a  consistency 
and  awefulness  to  the  words  befitting  Him  who  is  said  to  have 
uttered  them. 


ST.    LUKE.  203 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


It  is  needless  to  inquire  at  any  time  upon  what  principle  the 
dividers  of  chapters  in  the  New  Testament  proceeded.     I  pre- 
sume they  had  a  notion  that  parables  were  in  some  measure  to 
be  sorted  together,  and  to   be   separated,  when  it  was  possible, 
from  discourses  not  of  their  nature  ;  else  one  could  not  account 
for  a  parable   that  men  ought  always  to   pray,  and  not  to  famt, 
being  disjoined  from  the  previous  warnings  respecting  the  commg 
of  the  Son   of   Man,  even  though  it  concludes  with  the  words, 
"  Nevertheless  when  the  Son  of  Man  cometh,  shall  he  find  faith 
on  the  earth?"     Unquestionably  they  Ixad  a  right  to  think  that 
this  parable  has  a  worth  of  its  own  apart  from   any  of  its  inci- 
dents ;  that    it    describes  the  very   impulse   to  prayer,  the  con- 
sciousness of  being  haunted  and  tormented  by  an  adversary  ;  that 
it  shows  how  men  must  and  will  pray  so  long  as  they  have  a  notion 
that  there  is  a  judge  of  the  earth  at  all,  even  though  they  think 
that  He  is  an  unfeeling  and   indifferent  one  ;  and  that  all  the 
deepest  encouragement  to  prayer  lies  in  the  belief  that  He  is  one 
who  cares  to  set  them  free  from  their  oppressor.     But  this  ever- 
lasting significance  is  realized  a  thousand  times  more,  if  we  sup- 
pose that  there  was  a  crisis  when   every  thing  looked  dark  and 
terrible;  when   the  Son  of   Man   seemed  to  have  deserted  the 
earth  over  which  He  had  brooded  for  so  many  generations,  and 
which  He  had  at  last  visited  as  one  of  its  inhabitants  ;  when  His 
disciples  looked  and  looked   in  vain  for  a  glimpse  of   His  day  ; 
when   the   adversary   seemed   quite  invincible,  and   judges  and 
rulers  to  regard  neither  God  nor   man.     And  if   then,  just  then 
when  all  hearts  were  waxing  feeble  and  tongues  cleaving  to  the 
roof  of  the  mouth,  there  came  an  actual  revelation  amidst  thun- 
ders and  lightnings  of  Christ's  power  and  presence  and  permanent 
royalty  ;— that  would  be  a  consolation  indeed  to  men  in  all  ages, 
that  would  be  an   encouragement  to   God's  elect  to  cry  day  and 
night  even  in  the  most  oppressive  circumstances  of  their  lives, 


204  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

since  they  might  be  certain  that  He  was  hearing  them  and  about 
to  answer  them  when  He  seemed  to  bear  longest  with  them. 

St.  Luke  had  used  the  words  "  His  own  elect.''  Could  there 
,be  better,  more  genial,  more  encouraging  words  ?  If  a  man  does 
not  look  upon  himself  as  called  by  God,  what  strength  can  he 
have  to  pray.'*  How  can  he  ask  for  deliverance  if  he  does  not 
believe  that  God  wills  to  deliver  him,  and  that  his  adversary  who 
seeks  to  destroy  him  is  God's  adversary  ?  But  was  there  no  dan- 
ger accompanying  this  righteous  and  necessary  confidence  ? 
Might  it  not  lead  a  man  to  despise  others,  to  glorify  himself  .'* 
If  it  should  take  that  effect  upon  him,  what  effect  would  it  have 
upon  his  prayer  ?  Our  Lord  answers  the  question  in  a  parable 
which  must  always  be  looked  upon  as  the  necessary  pendant  to 
the  other.  If  a  man  does  think  that  he  is  not  like  other  men,  he 
cannot  pray  ;  he  is  conscious  of  no  adversary ;  he  is  not  flying  to 
a  judge  from  that  adversary.  Unless  he  says,  "  God  be  merciful 
to  me  a  sinner,"  unless  he  takes  the  lowest  place  among  men  and 
seeks  deliverance  as  a  man,  and  not  as  better  than  other  men,  he 
does  not  know  what  he  wants  to  be  set  free  from,  he  does  not 
know  who  is  to  set  him  free  ;  he  has  no  faith,  his  conscience  has 
no  justification.  What  a  paradox  is  here  !  The  elect  man  must 
look  upon  himself  as  one  with  all  other  men,  else  he  cannot  feel 
that  God  is  hearing  him,  God  is  justifying  him.  A  man  who 
stands  upon  his  separation,  cannot  feel  that  God  has  called  him 
or  has  any  thing  to  do  with  him  ;  his  very  effort  to  separate  him- 
self from  the  world,  proves  that  he  belongs  to  the  world  ;  for 
what  is  the  world  in  its  evil  sense,  but  a  set  of  individuals  who 
are  trying  to  set  themselves  one  above  another,  to  sever  them- 
selves one  from  another  .?  It  is  a  paradox  surely,  the  paradox  of 
Christianity,  the  one  which  we  shall  find  the  Apostle  of  the  Gen- 
tiles continually  bringing  before  us,  the  one  which  has  caused 
the  greatest  perplexity  and  confusion  to  the  readers  of  his  epistles 
who  have  thought  that  they  could  clear  him  of  the  difficulty  by 
getting  rid  of  one  or  the  other  of  the  facts  which  he  acknowledge*d 
and  which  I  think  we  shall  find  he  reconciled. 

I  have  given  full   scope  to  the  wish  of  readers  that  this  last 


ST.    LUKE. 


205 


parable  should  have  an  universal  character,  for  I  have  not  even 
noticed  the  circumstance,  which  scarcely  any  one  passes  over, 
that  the  persons  in  it  are  a  Pharisee  and  a  Publican.  That  cir- 
cumstance at  once  connects  it  with  the  general  subject  of  these 
discourses,  the  discovery  of  that  falsehood  in  the  Jew  by  which 
he  was  perverting  and  inverting  the  purpose  of  God  in  calling 
him,  so  bringing  down  that  exclusion  upon  himself  which  he  sup- 
posed that  God  desired  for  all  others.  The  passages  which  fol- 
low to  the  30th  verse,  have  been  commented  upon  at  some  length 
already.  What  I  said  of  them  generally,  will  explain  their  special 
suitableness  to  this  place. 

I  have  also   spoken  of  the  passage  beginning  with  the  31st 
verse  :  but  I  would  notice  it  here  as  one  of  a  number  of  allusions  ■ 
to  the  going  up  to  Jerusalem  which  give   a  peculiarly  pathetic 
character  to  these  chapters,  and  which  do  not  suffer  us  to  forget 
to  what   object  it  is  that  every  warning,   encouragement,   and 
event,  is  subordinate.     The  last  incident  has  a  touching  connec- 
tion with  the  ignorance  of  the  disciples  spoken  of  in  the  34tW 
verse      How  it  was  that  their  Master  should  be   scourged  and 
spitted  on  and  put  to  death,  the  disciples  could  not  understand  ; 
nor  will  any  words,  even  Christ's  own,  teach  a  man,   Jew  or 
Christian,  how  the  great  King  should  be  the  g^at  sufferer^  Suf- 
fering must  teach  him.    The  blind  man  who  cried,^    Thou  Son  o 
David,  have  mercy  upon  me,"  and  whom  the  disciples  would  not 
permit  to  approach  Him,  discovered  for  himself,  teaches  us,  that 
only  He  who  is  a  brother  of  man  in  his  sorrows,  can  be  his  l^ord 
and  deliverer. 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

I  cannot  help  connecting  the  opening  story  of  this  chapter  with 
the  concluding  one  of  the  last.  The  old  notion  of  2-^1--- 
an  extortioner  whom  our  Lord  reformed  by  His  divine  Spu, 
though  it  has  been  thrown  aside  by  some  modern  interpreters  is 
I  think,  the  most  consistent  with  the  facts  of  the  story.     The 


206  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

Pharisees  were  too  well  used  to  our  Lord's  intercourse  with  pub- 
licans, to  be  struck  with  any  common  instance  of  the  kind.  If 
they  said,  "He  is  gone  to  be  guest  with  a  man  that  is  a  sinner," 
the  natural  inference,  in  the  absence  of  other  evidence,  is  that  he 
was  worse  than  his  class,  that  he  had  notoriously  got  his  riches 
by  means  which  were  common  but  not  universal  in  it.  The 
words  of  Zacchaeus  certainly  do  not  diminish  this  probability ; 
they  have  all  the  air  and  effect  of  a  new  resolution  ;  no  one  would 
fancy  from  them  that  he  had  7iot  taken  any  thing  from  any  man 
by  false  accusation.  Our  Lord's  words  therefore,  '*  This  day  has 
salvation  come  to  this  house,  forsomuch  as  he  also  is  a  son  of 
Abraham,"  would  express  at  once  a  recognition  of  an  outcast 
class  as  included  in  the  covenant,  and  an  assurance  that  the  great 
blessing  of  the  covenant  was  deliverance  or  salvation  from  the 
sin  by  which  the  children  of  Abraham  were  kept  from  God.  That 
the  particular  sin  in  this  case  was  the  one  which  our  Lord  had 
been  bringing  home  to  Pharisees  and  to  the  whole  nation,  and 
which  He  had  foretold  as  the  cause  of  its  coming  ruin,  gives  an 
emphasis  to  this  moral  miracle,  and  shows  why  it  shpuld  have 
been  associated  with  the  physical  miracle  of  healing  the  blind 
man,  as  an  attestation  of  the  kingship  which  Jesus  would  claim 
on  His  entrance  into  the  city.  If  this  is  not  the  purport  of  the 
story,  it  would  seem  too  unimportant  to  record  at  so  memorable 
a  crisis  of  the  history  as  the  one  we  have  reached. 

Again,  we  are  told  that  He  spake  a  parable  because  He  was 
nigh  to  Jerusalem,  and  because  they  thought  that  the  kingdom 
of  God  would  immediately  appear.  This  parable  is  often  com- 
pared with  the  one  in  the  25th  chapter  of  St.  Matthew,  called 
the  Ten  Talents.  The  obvious  differences  between  them  are, 
that  there  various  sums  are  given  to  the  servants,  that  here  one 
pound  is  given  to  each  ;  that  there  the  reward  to  the  servants 
who  had  improved  their  money  by  trading,  is  entering  into  the 
joy  of  their  Lord,  here  it  is  having  dominion  over  ten  or  five 
cities  ;  that  there  is  no  allusion  to  any  revolt  of  citizens  or  to 
their  being  punished,  that  here,  as  in  the  case  of  St.  Matthew's 
parable  of  the 'king  making  a  marriage  for  his  son,  these  are  con- 


ST.    LUKE.  207 

spicuous  and  capital  incidents.  In  fact,  it  seems  to  me  that  the 
rest  of  the  parable  must  be  looked  at  in  subordination  to  them. 
The  journey  to  Jerusalem  and  the  solemn  preparations  for  it,  had 
led  the  disciples  to  suppose  that  then  there  would  be  some  great 
display  of  Christ's  kingdom,  nay,  that  it  would  be  actually  set 
up.  The  answer  is,  "No.  First  of  all  there  will  be  a  message 
from  the  citizens,  *  we  will  not  have  this  man  to  reign  over  us.' 
Then  there  will  be  an  intermediate  period  during  which  different 
servants  of  the  king  will  be  endued  with  a  power  which  they  may 
either  neglect  or  cultivate  ;  then  there  will  be  a  trial  of  each  of 
them  to  see  what  he  has  done  ;  then  there  will  be  a  judgment 
upon  the  citizens.  All  this  will  happen  before  the  kingdom  is 
established."  All  this  I  believe  corresponded  precisely  to  the 
period  before  the  Ascension  ;  to  the  Apostolic  age,  after  the  gift 
of  the  Spirit ;  to  the  events  preceding  the  destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem ;  to  its  overthrow.  Whether  the  parable  loses  any  of  its 
force  for  the  later  Christian  Church  from  this  immediate  appli- 
cation, must  depend  on  the  estimate  we  form  of  the  endowments 
of  that  Church.  If  every  one  of  its  members,  besides  any  par- 
ticular talents  fitting  him  for  some  particular  occupation,  receives 
the  higher  and  general  gift  of  an  indwelling  Spirit,  his  responsi- 
bility for  that  treasure  cannot  be  less  because  Christians  who 
received  it  in  the  intermediate  age,  when  the  Old  Dispensation 
was  passing  away  and  the  New  had  not  fully  come,  were  called 
to  account  for  their  stewardship  of  it ;  receiving  in  proportion  to 
the  profit  they  had  made  of  it  greater  powers  of  usefuhiess,  more 
extensive  government  over  their  fellows,  or  being  utterly  deprived 
of  that  which  they  had,  and  which  they  treated  as  if  it  was  a 
semblance,  not  a  reality.  Only  upon  the  supposition  that  the 
Church  for  eighteen  hundred  years  has  been  left  barren  of  that 
which  is  said  in  Scripture  to  constitute  its  very  essence,  does 
this  parable,  however  exquisitely  and  strictly  appropriate  to  the 
apostolic  times,  cease  to  be  a  guide  for  ours. 

At  this  place  we  come  to  the  great  meeting-point  of  the  differ- 
ent Evangelists,  the  descent  from  the  Mount  of  Olives.  St.  Luke 
has  given  us  a  more   obvious  and  direct   preparation  for  that 


208  LECTURE    I.       PART    II. 

event  than  either  of  the  others-.  In  one  important  particular  he 
enlarges  the  history  of  it :  "I  tell  you,"  says  our  Lord  to  the 
Pharisees,  complaining  of  the  disciples  for  their  hosannas,  "if 
these  should  hold  their  peace,  the  stones  would  immediately  cry 
out."  And  those  words  are  explained  by  the  tears  which  He 
sheds  immediately  after  when  He  comes  near  the  city  and  be- 
holds it.  Within  a  few  years  the  stones  of  the  city  which  were 
held  together  by  the  praises  of  the  babes  and  sucklings,  would 
indeed  cry  out :  "  For  the  days  shall  come  upon  thee,  that  thine 
enemies  shall  cast  a  trench  about  thee,  and  compass  thee  round, 
and  keep  thee  in  on  every  side,  and  shall  lay  thee  even  with  the 
ground,  and  thy  children  within  thee  ;  and  they  shall  not  leave 
in  thee  one  stone  upon  another  ;  because  thou  knewest  not  the 
time  of  thy  visitation." 


CHAPTERS  XX.  XXL  XXH.  XXHL 

In  the  first  two  of  these  chapters  there  is  nothing  of  which  I 
have  not  spoken  at  some  length.  The  account  of  the  last  Sup- 
per in  the  22d  chapter  contains  three  memorable  peculiarities. 
First,  the  institution  of  the  new  feast  is  distinguished  from  the 
participation  of  the  old  far  more  markedly  than  by  the  other 
Evangelists.  The  words,  "  I  say  unto  you,  I  will  not  eat  any 
more  of  this  passover,  until  it  be  fulfilled  in  the  kingdom  of  God," 
and,  "  I  will  not  drink  of  the  fruit  of  the  vine,  until  the  kingdom 
of  God  shall  come,"  are  said  with  great  distinctness  after  He  had 
eaten  the  unleavened  bread  and  handed  round  the  paschal  lamb, 
and  before  He  took  bread  and  gave  thanks,  saying,  "  This  is  my 
body  which  is  given  for  you,"  and  the  cup,  saying,  "  This  is  the 
new  testament  in  my  blood,  which  is  shed  for  you."  I  can  con- 
ceive no  more  decisive  proof  of  the  fact  that  St.  Luke  was,  and 
felt  himself  to  be,  in  a  peculiar  sense  the  Evangelist  of  the  New 
Dispensation,  than  this  difference  furnishes.  The  second  is  not 
equally  important,  but  still,  I  think,  highly  significant.  Sv.  Luke 
speaks  of  a  strife  among  them  at  this  very  feast,  which  of  them 


ST.    LUKE.  209 

should  be  accounted  the  greatest.    "  And  he  said  unto  them,  The 
kings  of  the  Gentiles  exercise  lordship  over  them  ;  and  they  that 
exercise  authority  upon  them   are   called  benefactors.     But  ye 
shall  not  be  so  :  but  he  that  is  greatest  among  you,  let  him  be  as 
the  younger  ;  and  he  that  is   chief,  as  he  that  doth   serve.     For 
whether  is  greater,  he  that  sitteth  at  meat,  or  he  that  serveth  ?  is 
not  he  that  sitteth  at  meat  ?  but  I  am  among  you  as  he  that  serv- 
eth.    Ye  are  they  which  have  continued  with  me  in  my  tempta- 
tions.    And  I  appoint  unto  you  a  kingdom,  as  my  Father  hath 
appointed  unto  me  ;  that  ye  may  eat  and  drink  at  my  table  in  my 
kingdom,  and  sit  on  thrones  judging  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel," 
The  fact  of  such  a  strife  as  this  at  such  a  moment,  is  the  most 
humbling,  and  therefore  one  of  the  most  instructive,  facts  in  the 
New  Testament.     First,   they  ask  who   is    the  betrayer  ;  next, 
which  of  them  shall  take  precedence  of  the  others.    To  show  how 
this  feast  was   to  break  down  the  ideas  of  rivalship  and  prece- 
dence, even  of  one  being  the  benefactor  of  another  except  in  the 
sense  of  being  more  a  servant ;  this  was  surely  a  fitting  work  for 
Him  who  had  just  instituted  a  sacrificial  feast,  and  was  Himself 
to  be  a  sacrifice.     Yet  while  their  thoughts  of  power  are  crushed 
by  His  words  and  acts  at  once,  how  confidently  does  He  promise 
them  the  real  power,  how  He  repeats  all  that  He  had  ever  said 
to  them   of  a  kingdom  and  their  own  place  in  it.     A  kingdom 
based  on  sacrifice  would  be  actually  proclaimed  in  the  world  ;  if 
they  could  give  up  themselves,  they  would  be  kings  and  judges 
m  it.     The  third  passage  is  the  one  which  has  caused  so  much 
perplexity  to   interpreters,  respecting  the   purse,  the  script,  and 
the  sword,  which  the  Apostles  had  not  taken  on  their  first  mis- 
sion, but  which  they  would  require  now.     I  do  not  know  that  I 
understand  the  passage.     But  it  looks  to  me  like   a  reconsecra- 
tion  of  common  things  which  it  had  been   proved  that  Christ's 
disciples  did  not  want,  but  yet  which  He  would  hallow  and  adopt 
into  His  service.     They  had  found  that  their  Master  could  sup- 
port them  though  they  had  none  of  these  things  ;  they  were  to 
depend  upon   His   support  when  they  had   them  ;  but  the  earth 
would  be  redeemed  ;  both  the  ploughshare,  and  the  sword,  and 

14. 


2IO  LECTURE    I.       PART    11. 

the  money-bag,  might  be  used  for  God  in  the  new  economy  as 
they  had  been  in  the  old.  Supposing  this  to  be  the  sense  of  the 
words,  and  it  is  nearly  the  sense  which  a  great  many  have  put  on 
them,  and  is  perhaps  latent  in  all  the  Middle-age  refinements  and 
fancies  respecting  the  two  swords, — it  would  be  in  accordance 
with  the  object  which  we  have  traced  through  St.  Luke,  that  he 
should  record  the  conversation,  as  he  records  shortly  after  the 
mistake  which  the  disciples  made  respecting  the  time  and  mode 
of  using  the  sword,  and  our  Lord's  practical  correction  of  it. 

In  the  account  of  the  Arraignment  and  of  the  Passion  in  the 
23d  chapter,  St.  Luke  has  several  important  variations.  First, 
he  alone  records  our  Lord's  being  sent  to  Herod.  Secondly,  it 
is  he  who  relates  the  words  to  the  daughters  of  Jerusalem  on  the 
way  to  Calvary.  Thirdly,  it  is  he  who  gives  the  words  on  the 
cross,  "  Father,  forgive  them  ;  for  they  know  not  what  they  do." 
Fifthly,  he  tells  the  story  of  the  penitent  malefactor.  Finally,  he 
relates  the  words,  "  Father,  into  thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit." 
I  merely  record  these  differences  for  your  own  meditation.  A 
thoughtful  and  devout  reader  does  not  wish  for  many  words  upon 
such  a  topic ;  he  will  have  learnt  in  better  ways,  than  through 
any  teaching  of  mine,  what  the  power  and  worth  of  these  pas- 
sages in  the  narrative  are.  I  only  suggest  to  him,  that  instead 
of  being  breaks  in  the  narrative  of  St.  Luke,  or  accidental  addi- 
tions to  it,  they  harmonize  most  strikingly  with  the  structure  and 
purpose  of  the  Gospel  ;  so  that  if  the  narrative  of  either  of  the 
other  Evangelists  were  substituted  for  it,  we  should  feel,  though 
we  might  not  know  why,  a  shock  and  jar  in  our  minds  ;  I  am 
sure  that  it  is  so,  though  1  might  not  be  able  to  illustrate  my 
meaning  without  going  into  refinements  which  I  should  wish  to 
avoid,  and  which  might  hurt  the  reader's  inner  perception  more 
than  they  cultivated  his  understanding.  But  it  can  do  no  harm 
to  make  the  remark,  which  every  reader  has  probably  made  for 
himself,  that  an  Evangelist  who  recorded  the  story  of  the  woman 
who  wept  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  and  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal 
Son,  was  the  one  from  whom  one  would  have  expected  to  hear 
the  words,  "  To-day  shalt  thou  be  with   me  in   Paradise,"  which 


ST.    LUKE.  211 

St.  Matthew,  I  conceive,  for  the  best  and  wisest  reasons,  was  not 
suffered  to  record  or  to  know. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

The  whole  story  of  the  journey  to  Emmaus  in  this  chapter  be- 
longs exclusively  to  St.  Luke.  I  think  a  great  many  have  felt 
and  confessed,  that  this  story  has  led  them,  more  than  any  other, 
to  an  apprehension  of  a  risen  Lord,  and  of  the  kind  of  communi- 
cation which  might  have  existed  between  Him  and  His  disciples; 
very  different  from  what  it  had  been  before  the  Passion,  but  dif- 
ferent in  being  more  real,  more  intimate,  mixed  with  greater  awe, 
yet  producing  a  greater  glow  and  warmth  of  heart,  rarer  in  words, 
communicating  deeper  instruction,  making  that  which  had  been 
heard  dimly  before  intelligible,  diffusing  peace,  enabling  the  heart 
to  enter  into  mysteries  which  had  been  floating  vaguely  about  it. 
The  sense  of  a  body  delivered  from  the  chains  of  death,  essen- 
tially the  same  as  it  was  before,  using  naturally  as  its  own,  pow- 
ers which  had  been  hidden  or  had  only  occasionally  come  forth, 
is  one  part,  not  the  only  or  perhaps  the  chief  part,  of  the  revela- 
tion. Its  capacity  of  vanishing  and  of  reappearing  is  felt  to  in- 
.dicate  the  possibility  of  a  spiritual  presence,  which  may  be  con- 
tinually near,  and  in  which  men  may  be  meant  ever  to  abide. 

Now,  if  this  is  the  impression  which  St.  Luke's  words  make 
on  us,  they  carry  us  beyond  the  forty  days  after  the  Resurrection. 
They  leave  upon  our  minds  a  certainty  that  we  are  at  the  begin- 
ning, not  the  end  of  a  history.  If  there  has  been  a  Resurrection, 
we  feel  there  must  be  an  Ascension.  Men  have  believed  it. 
Why  ?  Because  there  was  a  great  array  of  external  proofs  and 
evidences  to  confirm  it  ?  Where  are  they  ?  Who  has  ever  found 
them,  or  believed  any  stupendous  fact  of  this  kind,  upon  the 
strength  of  them  ?  Men  have  for  eighteen  hundred  years  ac- 
cepted the  fact  of  the  Ascension  upon  the  testimony  of  this  one 
Evangelist,  confirmed  by  the  few  words  of  St.  Mark,  because  it 
was  not  an  incredible  thing  to  those   once  believing  in  a  Son  of 


212  LECTURE    I.       PA.RT    II. 

God,  and  King  of  men,  that  it  should  be  so  ;  but  incredible  that 
it  should  not  be  so  ;  incredible  that  He  should  be  bound  by  any 
chains  of  space  and  time,  that  He  should  not  have  led  captivity 
to  them  captive,  that  He  should  not  be  as  actual  and  personal, 
as  when  He  was  loaded  with  those  fetters  which  hinder  us  from 
realizing  our  personality,  from  being  what  we  feel  we  are  meant 
to  be  ;  that  He  should  not  be  actually  at  the  right  hand  of  God, 
actually  the  bond  of  union  and  fellowship  among  men.  The 
Evangelist  of  the  New  Dispensation  casts  forth  this  belief  upon 
the  world,  asking  no  special  homage  to  his  own  authority,  pro- 
ducing no  overpowering  weight  of  testimony  to  crush  unbelief, 
announcing  it  as  good  tidings  to  men,  which  the  wants  of  men 
and  the  wisdom  of  God  in  the  generations  to  come  would  estab- 
lish, though  all  the  earthly  witnesses  of  it  should  prove  utterly 
vain  and  futile,  though  all  the  power  and  all  the  wisdom  of  the 
world  should  proclaim  that  God  had  not  set  His  Son  upon  the 
holy  hill  of  Sion,  and  that  the  rulers  of  the  earth  owed  Him  no 
homage. 


LECTURE   11. 

ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES,  EPISTLES   OF  ST.  JAMES, 
ST.  PETER  AND  ST.  PAUL. 


^^^RpM^S  L   1—4. 

The  Gospel  of  God,  which  He  had  promised  afore  by  His  Prophets 
in  the  holy  Scriptures,  concerning  His  Son  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord,  which  was  made  of  the  seed  of  David  according  to  the 
flesh,  and  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power,  according 
to  the  Spirit  of  holiness,  by  the  resurrection  from  the  dead. 

Most  persons  are  struck  with  the  very  great  prominence  which 
is  given  to  the  life  and  journeys  of  St.  Paul  in  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles.  They  do  not  wonder  at  such  a  peculiarity  in  a  writer 
whom  they  have  always  heard  of  as  the  companion  of  St.  Paul. 
It  was  natural  enough  that  all  the  twelve  who  were  so  conspicu- 
ous in  the  Gospels  should  sink  to  nothing  in  his  eyes  before  the 
teacher  of  the  Gentiles  from  whom  he  had  imbibed  his  wisdom, 
with  whom  he  had  lived  and  suffered.  "  But  does  not  this  im- 
portance attached  to  the  person  of  a  man,  who  was  not  marked 
out  by  our  Lord  while  on  earth  as  one  of  the  heralds  of  His  king- 
dom, belie  the  title  of  the  book,  clash  with  other  parts  of  the 
New  Testament,  and  indicate  that  there  was  a  distinct  Pauline 
element  in  the  Church,  which  interfered  with  the  authority  if  not 
with  the  doctrine  of  the  elder  Apostles,  though  awkward  attempts 
might  be  made  in  later  times  to  bring  them  into  harmony,  and 
though  through  the   artifice  of  later  compilers  or  some  tendency 


214  LECTURE    II. 

to  compromise  in  the  mind  of  Luke  himself,  the  early  part  of  the 
book  was  brought  in  to  qualify  the  later  ? "  Some  such  questions 
as  these  may  have  suggested  themselves  to  the  minds  of  readers 
in  all  ages;  they  have  in  recent  days  taken  a  formal  shape,  and 
are  entitled  to  the  most  grave  consideration. 

I  think  I  have  in  a  measure  considered  them  already.  I  have 
admitted  most  distinctly  the  difference  between  St.  Luke  and 
St.  Matthew  as  Evangelists :  I  have  inquired  wherein  that  dif- 
ference consists,  so  far  as  its  nature  can  be  ascertained  from  a 
careful  comparison  of  the  two  documents  as  they  have  come 
down  to  us.  The  difference  has  seemed  not  to  be  this,  that  St. 
Matthew  affirms  less  distinctly,  less  uniformly  than  St.  Luke, 
that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God  and  the  King  of  men  ;  but  that  the 
one  exhibits  His  Sonship  especially  in  the  acknowledgment  of  a 
divine  Father,  the  other  in  the  gift  of  a  divine  Spirit  to  men  ;  that 
the  one  looks  upon  Christ's  kingdom  as  the  fulfilment  of  a  pecu- 
liar dispensation,  the  other  as  the  form  of  a  universal  one.  In 
the  first  a  Hebrew  character  was  visible  ;  a  human  character 
was  shining  through  that.  In  the  latter,  the  great  object  seemed 
to  be  to  present  the  Gospel-kingdom  as  the  kingdom  originally 
designed  for  mankind.  At  the  same  time  we  have  found  St. 
Luke,  not  once  or  twice,  not  by  accident,  but  continuously, 
through  his  whole  Gospel,  and  especially  through  that  long  and 
memorable  series  of  discourses  which  follows  the  account  of  the 
Transfiguration,  connecting  all  intimations  respecting  the  future 
with  Jerusalem,  with  the  claim  of  Jesus  to  be  King  over  that 
city,  and  with  the  rejection  of  that  claim  by  its  rulers. 

Supposing  these  points  to  have  been  made  out,  supposing  this 
to  have  been  the  continuous  tenor  of  St.  Luke's  first  treatise,  I 
cannot  find  it  at  all  out  of  place,  I  cannot  trace  the  signs  of 
patch-work  in  the  fact,  that  the  new  treatise  should  open  with 
the  Ascension,  which  St.  Luke  appeared  to  regard  as  the  neces- 
sary sequel  to  the  Resurrection,  as  the  proof  of  Christ's  claim  to 
universal  dominion  ;  or  that  the  witnesses  to  that  Ascension 
should  be  the  Apostles  whom  He  had  chosen  ;  or  that  these 
Apostles  should  feel  it  necessary  to  complete  the  number  which 


THE    ACTS    OF    THE    APOSTLES.  21 5 

our  Lord  had  originally  fixed,  and  which  answered  to  the  twelve 
tribes  of  Israel ;  or  that  they  should  be  met  at  a  great  Jewish 
festival  at  which  men  were  gathered  from  all  parts  of  the  Roman 
and  Parthian  empires  ;  or  that  the  descent  of  the  Spirit  should 
be  declared  to  be  the  witness  of  the  Sonship  and  Kingdom  of 
Jesus  ;  or  that  this  Spirit  should  be  said  to  manifest  Himself  by 
enabling  Galilaeans  so  to  speak  of  the  wonderful  works  of  God, 
as  to  make  themselves  understood  by  the  keepers  of  the  feast 
each  in  the  dialect  wherein  he  was  born  ;  or  that  the  society 
which  had  this  early  pledge  of  universality,  should  yet  be  limited 
for  a  time  to  the  city  in  which  it  came  into  existence ;  or  that  it 
should  prove  its  humanity  there  by  no  man  counting  that  which 
he  had  as  his  own  ;  or  that  it  should  spread  ;  or  that  different 
circumstances,  apparently  accidental,  should  lead  to  exercises  of 
discipline  in  the  new  community ;  or  to  its  more  perfect  organ- 
ization ;  or  that  a  deacon  should  discover  even  before  an  apos- 
tle that  the  temple  and  the  customs  which  Moses  delivered 
would  not  always  continue  ;  or  that  he  should  be  the  first  martyr 
of  the  new  kingdom  ;  or  that  his  death  should  be  the  means  of 
spreading  it  into  Samaria ;  or  that  being  there  it  should  pass 
soon  into  Syria ;  or  that  a  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews  should  be 
filled  with  intense  rage  against  the  new  church  for  breaking 
down  the  barrier  between  Jews  and  the  outlying  world  ;  or  that 
he  should  be  taught  by  revelation  that  he  was  a  sinner  as  much 
as  the  Gentiles,  and  that  Gentiles  had  a  share  in  Christ  as  well 
as  himself ;  or  that  yet  another  apostle,  not  the  friend  and 
teacher  of  St.  Luke,  should  be  the  first  preacher  to  the  Gentiles, 
he  having  been  taught  that  what  God  had  cleansed  he  was  not 
to  call  common  ;  or  that  Saul  should  be  for  a  long  time  learning 
at  Antioch  in  a  society  of  Jews  sprinkled  with  some  Greeks,  and 
beginning  to  be  known  by  the  name^of  Christians,  what  his  work 
was  to  be;  or  that  at  last  he  should  be  directly  designated  to 
that  work  ;  or  that  thenceforth  the  history  of  the  way  in  which 
he  declared  a  universal  kingdom  to  Roman  governors  in  Cy- 
prus, to  Lycaonian  savages,  to  the  Asiatic  Greeks,  to  Macedo- 
nians, to  philosophical  Athenians,  to  the  worshippers  of  Aphro- 


2l6  LECTURE    11. 

dite  in  Corinth,  to  the  worshippers  of  Diana  in  Ephesus,  should 
be  the  main  subject  of  the  book  ;  that  it  should  be  illustrated  by 
a  narrative  of  his  journey  to  Jerusalem,  to  defend  the  rights  of 
the  Gentiles  to  the  privileges  of  the  new  covenant,  without  their 
being  compelled  to  submit  to  the  form  of  the  old  ;  that  it  should 
contain  the  account  of  another  journey  to  Jerusalem,  in  which  he 
declared  that  Christ  had  commanded  him  to  go  to  the  Gentiles, 
and  thus  drew  upon  himself  the  conspiracy  of  zealots  and  the 
condemnation  of  the  high  priest;  or  that  the  historian  should 
dwell  upon  his  examinations  before  Gentile  governors  till  at  last 
he  was  brought  a  prisoner  to  the  Capital  of  the  world. 

I  cannot  conceive  a  more  orderly  and  coherent  history  than 
this,  one  of  which  all  the  parts  explain  themselves  more  naturally 
by  that  fundamental  idea  which  we  have  traced  in  the  writer's 
mind.  That  his  circumstances  as  a  companion  of  St.  Paul  fitted 
him  to  be  the  writer  of  such  a  history,  I  have  not  denied,  but 
eagerly  asserted.  Only  I  cannot  discover  that  his  personal 
friendship  drew  him  one  step  from  the  line  and  object  of  his 
history.  If  he  wished  to  describe  how  a  human  kingdom,  which 
had  been  lying  at  the  root  of  the  Jewish  kingdom,  unfolded  itself 
by  the  will  of  God  through  human  agents,  through  human  oppo- 
sition— how  men  were  prepared  to  assist  in  its  establishment  by 
a  series  of  divine  arrangements  which  they  could  not  control,  and 
very  imperfectly  understood — this  would  certainly  be  the  kind  of 
narrative  we  should  look  for,  one  which  puts  no  honor  upon  in- 
dividual men,  which  exhibits  their  errors  and  weaknesses,  which 
shows  how  mighty  they  became  when  they  confessed  a  calling 
and  were  content  to  fulfil  it. 

That  the  name.  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  very  inadequately  de- 
scribes the  nature  of  this  book  I  am  ready  to  admit.  If  we  look 
for  biographies  of  the  eleven  whom  St.  Luke,  as  much  as  any 
other  Evangelist,  says  that  our  Lord  called  to  be  ministers  of 
His  kingdom,  to  sit  on  thrones  judging  the  twelve  tribes  of 
Israel,  we  are  utterly  disappointed.  We  must  trust  to  vague  ec- 
clesiastical traditions  for  reports  of  the  countries  into,  which  they 
travelled,  of  the   mode  in  which   they  preached,  of  the  deaths 


THE    ACTS    OF    THE    APOSTLES.  21/ 

which  they  died.  The  Scriptural  Historian  is  silent  on  these 
points.  He  speaks  very  little  even  of  those  whom  our  Lord 
honored  with  the  most  special  signs  of  His  favor.  Andrew  is 
not  mentioned  except  in  the  list  in  the  first  chapter.  The  mar- 
tyrology  of  James  the  brother  of  John  is  contained  in  a  single 
sentence.  The  beloved  disciple  himself  is  only  mentioned  in 
conjunction  with  St.  Peter  as  healing  the  impotent  man,  once  as 
appearing  before  the  Sanhedrim,  once  in  Samaria. 

These  omissions  are,  I  conceive,  the  most  decisive  evidence  of 
a  purpose  which  cannot  be  lost  sight  of  for  a  moment,  to  gratify 
the  curiosity  of  any  reader.  Whatever  concerns  the  growth  of 
the  universal  society  out  of  the  Jewish  is  carefully  and  minutely 
noted.  The  works  of  human  agents  are  referred  to  just  so  far  as 
they  are  necessary  for  the  illustration  of  this  subject ;  the  highest 
honor  that  could  be  paid  an  apostle  was  to  suppose  that  he  lived 
and  died  only  for  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  that  if  he  fulfilled 
the  work  which  was  given  him  to  do,  he  cared  nothing  whether 
his  name  was  written  in  brass  or  utterly  obliterated. 

This  second  treatise  of  St.  Luke  is  invaluable  as  an  introduc- 
tion to  the  Epistles  of  the  New  Testament ;  not  because  it  sup- 
plies a  great  many  particulars  respecting  the  lives  of  the  writers 
which  we  could  not  gather  from  themselves ;  (for  their  letters 
are  their  best  biographies  ;)  but  because  it  removes  an  impres- 
sion respecting  them  which  we  fall  into  very  naturally,  and  which 
I  believe  grievously  darkens  their  meaning  to  us.  We  assume 
that  they  are  intended  to  set  forth  the  Christian  religion ;  by 
which  words  we  very  commonly  understand  a  certain  doctrine 
concerning  the  state  after  death,  and  the  means  by  which  a  man 
may  make  that  state  a  blessed  one  for  himself.  Having  assumed 
this  to  be  the  great  subject  of  the  Epistles,  we  inquire  with  much 
earnestness  how  it  comes  that  these  documents,  which  are  to  be 
the  guides  of  our  thought  and  conduct,  should  present  views  ap- 
parently so  diverse  ;  how  one  apostle  should  speak  of  faith  as 
that  which  saves,  another  should  say,  "  Can  faith  save  .? "  These 
words  seem  to  bewilder  the  inquirer  on  the  very  point  on  which 
he  is   most   earnest  for   information.      A   man   thoroughly  pos- 


) 


2l8  LECTURE    II. 

sessed  with  the  one  truth,  feeling  it  to  be  the  very  staff  of  his 
life,  the  ground  of  the  Church's  existence,  indignantly  rejects 
the  other  ;  no  canonical  authority  can  induce  him  to  bear  with 
it.  Less  energetic  men  feel  that  there  is  some  truth  implied  in 
both  assertions,  and  cannot  persuade  themselves  to  cast  away 
either,  though  it  is  only  at  certain  periods  of  their  lives  that  the 
ingenious  explanations  of  divines  really  take  hold  of  them  and 
are  practically  adopted.  Bolder  thinkers,  falling  on  a  critical 
age,  are  ready  enough  to  accept  the  solution  which  seems  to 
them  far  simpler,  that  those  who  enunciated  such  different  prop- 
ositions were  heads  of  opposing  schools  or  factions,  each  main- 
taining its  own  theory  of  the  way  in  which  the  rewards  of  a  future 
life  were  to  be  secured. 

Now  without  at  present  considering  any  of  these  suggestions, 
we  are  bound  to  say  that  if  we  take  the  simple  words  of  St.  Luke 
for  our  guide,  still  more  the  context  of  his  history,  we  shall  not 
accept  the  popular  statement  as  expressing  adequately  the  views 
which  any  of  these  apostles  can  have  entertained  of  his  divine 
function.  The  book  which  we  call  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  so 
far  as  we  have  been  able  to  consider  it,  is  the  history  of  a  king- 
dom actually  set  up  in  this  world,  not  limited  to  it  undoubtedly, 
by  its  very  nature  and  principle  connecting  the  visible  with  the 
invisible,  the  temporary  with  the  eternal,  the  earthly  with  the 
heavenly,  the  human  with  the  divine ;  but  not  referring  to  the 
future  more  than  to  the  present.  The  preaching  of  every  Apos- 
tle and  teacher  of  the  church,  so  far  as  St.  Luke  reports  it,  tends 
to  the  same  conclusion.  When  St.  Peter  opens  his  lips  on  the 
day  of  Pentecost,  it  is  to  declare  that  Jesus,  whom  the  rulers  of 
the  Jews  had  given  up  to  be  crucified,  was  both  Lord  and  Christ ; 
that  the  Son  of  God  was  risen  from  the  dead,  because  it  was  not 
possible  that  death  could  hold  him.  But  those  who  were  pricked 
to  the  heart  by  these  words  were  not  told  of  some  distant  pun- 
ishment or  distant  blessedness :  they  were  told  to  repent  and  be 
baptized  that  they  might  receive  remission  of  their  sins  and  the 
gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  they  were  told  to  save  themselves  from 
that  untoward  generation.      So  again,  when  St.  Peter  is  address- 


THE    ACTS    OF    THE    APOSTLES.  2I9 

ing  those  who  were  wondering  at  the  miracle  upon  the  lame 
man,  he  tells  them  that  all  the  prophets  had  foretold  of  these 
days  ;  he  speaks  of  God  fulfilling  the  covenant  v/hich  He  had 
made  to  Abraham,  that  in  him  all  the  kindreds  of  the  earth 
should  be  blessed  ;  he  speaks  of  God  having  raised  up  His  Son 
Jesus  to  bless  them  and  turn  away  every  one  of  them  from  his 
iniquities.  He  speaks,  that  is,  of  a  present  blessing,  of  an  im- 
mediate deliverance  ;  of  future  blessings  and  future  deliverances 
only  so  far  as  they  were  implied  in  this,  and  were  the  results  of 
it.  The  joy  and  singleness  of  heart  which  is  said  to  have  dis- 
tinguished the  first  community  at  Jerusalem,  arose,  if  we  are  to 
judge  from  St.  Luke's  account,  from  the  feeling  that  they  were 
then  brothers  of  each  other,  and  of  a  common  Lord,  not  from 
some  dreams  or  calculations  of  what  might  happen  to  them  in 
another  world.  Their  thanksgiving  and  prayer  when  they  went 
from  the  Sanhedrim  to  their  own  company,  when  the  house  was 
shaken  where  they  were  assembled,  arose  from  their  conviction 
that  Jesus  was  that  King  of  whom  David  had  spoken,  against 
whom  the  Gentiles  had  gathered  together  and  the  people  im- 
agined a  vain  thing,  of  whose  kingdom  they  were  to  testify  by 
acts  and  words  of  healing ;  language  surely  denoting  the  joy  in 
an  accomplished  deliverance  which  they  were  permitted  to  de- 
clare to  others  as  well  as  themselves,  not  the  expectation  of 
some  good  which  they  might  receive,  of  some  evil  which  they 
might  escape,  after  death.  Stephen  when  his  face  shone  as  an 
angel's  w^e  might  suppose  would  dwell  much  upon  the  prospects 
which  awaited  him  ;  but  his  defence  is  a  history  of  the  gradual 
manifestation  of  God's  kingdom  upon  earth,  and  of  his  country- 
men's resistance  to  it.  The  sight  which  cheers  him  before  he 
falls  asleep  is  of  Christ  standing  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  a 
Conqueror  and  a  King.  The  great  joy  which  Philip  the  deacon 
causes  to  the  Samaritans,  is  not  by  telling  them  of  what  shall  be, 
but  of  that  which  is,  by  preaching  Christ  to  them  the  giver  of 
that  Spirit,  the  living  power  of  which  the  enchanter  had  tried  to 
imitate,  and  would  have  been  glad  to  purchase.  The  revelation 
to  St.  Paul  who  had  cried,  "  Who  shall  deliver  me  from  the  body 


220  LECTURE    II. 

of  this  death  ?  "  and  who  in  the  school  of  Gamah'el  may  have 
been  continually  exercised  with  questions  concerning  a  world  to 
come,  was  not  of  some  means  by  which  he  could  better  his  state 
hereafter,  but  of  Jesus  the  deliverer  from  present  sin,  from  an 
evil  conscience  which  abode  with  him  ;  of  Jesus  who  had  brought 
reconciliation  to  Gentile  as  well  as  Jew.  And  therefore  when 
he  speaks  most  awfully  in  the  synagogue  of  Antioch  in  Pisidia, 
of  the  fear  lest  if  his  countrymen  continued  despisers'they  might 
wonder  and  perish,  the  message  he  delivers  is,  "  that  a  work  has 
been  worked  in  these  days  which  they  would  not  believe,  and 
that  God  had  fulfilled  the  promise  which  he  had  made  the  fa- 
thers, to  them  their  children  " — Jesus  being  raised  from  the 
dead,  not  as  we  might  expect  He  would  say,  to  prove  that  they 
would  rise,  but  as  a  proof  that  He  was  the  only-begotten  Son,  to 
whom  were  given  the  sure  mercies  of  David.  To  the  Lycaonians 
Paul  does  not  speak  of  punishments  or  rewards  hereafter,  but  of 
God  who  made  the  world  and  had  been  doing  them  good,  and  was 
now  bidding  them  turn  from  their  vanities  to  serve  Him.  To  the 
Athenians  he  speaks  of  a  God  in  whom  they  were  the7i  living, 
and  moving,  and  having  their  being,  of  men  being  His  offspring, 
of  His  having  winked  at  their  ignorance,  but  now  of  His  calling 
upon  all  men  to  repent.  He  adds,  no  doubt,  "  because  He  has 
appointed  a  day  in  which  He  will  judge  the  world  by  that  Man 
whom  he  has  ordained,  w^hereof  He  has  given  assurance  in  that 
He  has  raised  Him  from  the  dead."  A  very  clear  assertion  that 
a  judgment  was  coming  upon  the  earth,  and  that  all  men,  the 
wise  and  the  unwise,  the  worshippers  of  gods  known  and  un- 
known, would  be  subject  to  it.  But  certainly  not  the  kind  of 
information  respecting  the  future  which  those  who  had  heard 
of  a  Tartarus  and  an  Elysium,  and  would  have  welcomed  any 
new  doctrine  about  either,  would  have  expected  from  the  new 
teacher.  A  present  God,  a  present  King,  a  present  Judge,  was 
his  proclamation  here  and  everywhere. 

If  you  keep  these  remarks  in  recollection,  you  will  be  prepared, 
I  think,  to  read  the  letters  of  the  Apostles,  and  to  find  that  in 
them,  as  in  their  preaching,  the  doctrine  has  reference  to  an  ac- 


THE  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES.  221 

tual  kingdom  to  which  men  were  invited  to  belong,  or  of  which 
they  had  already  become  members.  If  so,  we  ought  to  under- 
stand the  positions  of  the  different  writers  in  reference  to  this 
kingdom  :  that  knowledge  may  remove  some  perplexities  and 
contradictions  which  we  have  tried  in  vain  by  other  means  to 
clear  away.  There  are,  so  far  as' we  know,  but  five  writers  who 
have  contributed  to  the  canon  of  the  New  Testament  besides  the 
Evangelists  ;  St.  James  the  less,  his  brother  St.  Jude,  St.  Peter, 
St.  Paul  and  St.  John.  I  take  them  in  the  order  in  which  I  have 
named  them.  I  put  St.  James  first,  because  it  is  evident,  from 
the  15th  and  21st  chapters  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  that  he 
occupied  that  position  which  all  antiquity  has  assigned  him,  that 
either  because  the  other  Apostles  had  left  Jerusalem,  or  from 
some  cause  unknown  to  us,  he  became  the  overseer  of  the 
Mother-Church  of  the  world.  I  proceed  at  once  to  inquire  what 
aspect  of  the  Gospel  his  Epistle  presents  to  us. 


ST.  JAMES. 

It  has  been  shown  I  think  clearly,  that  this  Epistle  cannot 
have  been  written  to  qualify  or  counteract  any  hard  sayings  in 
the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  ;  that  they  were  directed  to  quite  differ- 
ent persons,  that  those  who  read  the  one  in  the  first  century 
were  not  likely  to  read  the  other,  that  in  all  probability  that  of 
St.  James  was  the  earlier  in  point  of  time.  These  facts,  how- 
ever, do  not  prove  that  there  is  not  a  very  great  difference  be- 
tween the  mind  and  objects  of  the  two  Apostles.  The  difi^erence 
presents  itself  to  us  on  the  surface  of  their  letters.  We  shall 
understand  it  more  completely  the  more  we  penetrate  into  the 
heart  of  them.  The  question  we  have  to  consider  is,  whether 
this  difference  affects  the  unity  of  the  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment in  their  testimony  to  Christ  and  to  His  Church .?  Is  St. 
James  in  his  Epistle  not  speaking  of  a  Son  of  God  ?  Is  it  not 
the  leading  idea  which  he  is  bringing  out  before  us  .? 

St.  James  calls  himself  a  servant  of  Jesus  Christ.     The  name 


222  LECTURE    II. 

occurs  but  two  or  three  times  in  the  letter.  That  is  one  of  its 
most  remarkable  peculiarities.  Next  he  writes  to  the  twelve 
tribes ;  whatever  we  may  say  in  this  day  about  the  loss  of  ten 
tribes,  and  the  restoration  of  two,  he  recognizes  no  such  distinc- 
tion. He  regards  the  Jewish  nation  as  a  whole,  constituted  as 
it  was  originally  in  the  descendants  of  Jacob.  But  why,  you 
may  ask,  does  he  the  Christian  address  himself  to  a  nation  the 
greater  part  of  which  had  rejected  Jesus  as  their  king  ?  I  can 
only  take  the  words  as  I  find  them.  He  writes  to  the  twelve 
tribes.  He  at  the  same  time  confesses  himself  distinctly  the 
servant  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  the  fact,  whether  I  understand  it 
or  not.  But  I  own  at  the  same  time  that  I  could  not  understand 
his  taking  any  other  course.  He  felt  that  his  belief  in  Jesus 
Christ  was  the  sign  of  his  being  a  true  Israelite.  That  belief 
enabled  him  to  appreciate  his  position.  What  he  desired  w^, 
that  his  brethren  should  understand  and  appreciate  their  posi- 
tion ;  that  they  should  feel  themselves  to  be  indeed  twelve 
tribes,  a  united  nation,  and  that  they  should  understand  how 
and  why  they  were  so.  Instead  therefore  of  making  them  insen- 
sible to  their  privileges,  his  great  desire  was  tliat  they  should  be 
more  alive  to  them,  more  ready  to  acknowledge  what  was  in- 
volved in  them. 

Do  I  suppose  then  that  he  was  addressing  himself  only  to  those 
who  had  not  been  baptized  into  the  holy  Name,  who  did  not  con- 
fess Jesus  to  be  the  Christ  t  I  suppose  no  such  thing.  He 
could  not  exclude  the  Jewish  believers  from  the  twelve  tribes,  if 
he  had  wished  it.  They  gloried  in  their  national  position.  He 
had  taught  them  to  prize  it.  And  he  could  make  the  best  use  of 
their  claim  to  share  the  privileges  and  responsibilities  of  the  Old 
Covenant.  He  could  make  it  the  best  means  of  instructing 
them  in  the  nature  and  principles  of  the  new. 

It  is  evidently  assumed  that  those  whom  he  was  addressing 
were  passing  or  were  likely  to  pass  through  great  afflictions. 
That  circumstance  would  not  in  the  least  limit  the  application  of 
the  letter  to  converts.  They  often  suffered  much  from  their 
countrymen,  but  not  sorer  trials  than  the  whole  body  of  Israelites 


THE    EPISTLE    OF    ST.    JAMES.  223 

underwent  in  every  part  of  the  empire  during  the  quarter  of  a 
century  immediately  before  the  destruction  of  the  city.  St. 
James  addresses  these  sufferers,  whoever  they  were,  in  most  par- 
adoxical language.  "  Count  it  all  joy,"  he  says,  "  when  ye  fall 
into  divers  temptations."  Our  translators,  I  conceive,  have 
adopted  a  right  word,  though  they  have  often  been  censured  for 
not  preferring  another.  St.  James's  meaning  is  lost  if  we  sup- 
pose that  the  trials  of  which  he  speaks  were  not  temptatio7is . 
Those  who  were  brought  into  them  would  be  tempted  to  distrust 
God,  to  think  that  He  had  deserted  them.  And  because  they 
would  be  so  tempted,  the  state  into  which  they  were  come  was 
a  good  one  for  them.  For  if  there  was  an  enemy  who  was  turn- 
ing their  circumstances  to  the  ruin  of  their  faith,  there  was  a 
friend  who  was  using  them  for  awakening  and  calling  forth  their 
faith.  God  who  was  ordering  all  things  for  them  was  not  tempt- 
ing them  to  evil ;  let  none  of  them  fancy  that.  He  was  cultiva- 
ting their  trust  and  their  patience.  Their  own  lusts  were  draw- 
ing them  aside  and  enticing  them.  But  every  gift  was  coming 
down,  good  and  perfect,  from  the  Father  of  lights,  with  whom  is 
no  variableness  or  shadow  of  turning. 

Here  is  the  beginning  of  St.  James's  message  to  the  twelve 
tribes.  The  God  of  Abraham,  the  God  of  their  fathers,  is  the 
source  of  perfect  unmixed  good.  No  evil  can  come  from  Him. 
Every  circumstance  which  befalls  them  is  to  be  welcomed  as  His 
instrument  for  conferring  good  upon  them.  They  are  yielding 
to  something  else  than  him,  something  opposite  to  Him,  if  any 
thing  that  befalls  them  leads  them  wrong.  No  lesson  could  be 
so  necessary  for  a  Jew  of  that  time.  If  he  had  believed  in  Jesus 
of  Nazareth,  he  had  need  to  be  reminded  of  this  truth  ;  for  it 
was  the  only  foundation  on  which  His  belief  could  rest.  If  he 
had  not  beheved,  the  truth  remained  a  truth.  To  acknowledge 
it  was  the  first  step  to  the  confession  of  Jesus  as  the  Christ. 

St.  James  goes  on  :  "  Of  His  own  will  begat  He  us  with  the 
word  of  truth,  that  we  should  be  a  kind  of  first-fruits  of  his  crea- 
tures." Every  thing  is  here  referred  to  the  will  of  God  as  the 
ground  of  their  calling.     They  had  not  chosen  themselves  ;  He 


224  LECTURE    II. 

had  chosen  them.  The  assertion  would  be  recognized  by  every 
Jew  acquainted  with  his  own  Scriptures  as  describing  the  source 
from  which  their  covenant  and  history  were  derived.  A  beh'ev- 
ing  Jew  was  bound  still  more  thankfully  to  refer  every  privilege 
to  this  origin.  But  how  would  it  be  with  the  next  word,  He  begat 
us  1  Evidently  the  idea  of  paternity  introduces  itself  here.  A 
believer  in  Jesus  would  say  at  once,  if  he  understood  the  mean- 
ing of  his  baptism,  the  glory  of  the  new  covenant ;  "  Yes,  we 
have  not  merely  the  calling  of  servants,  but  the  adoption  of  chil- 
dren." Still  there  was  nothing  in  such  languao^e  which  a  reader 
of  Isaiah  or  Malachi  could  stumble  at.  "  1  have  nourished  and 
brought  up  children,  and  they  have  rebelled  against  me ; " 
*'  Have  we  not  all  one  Father  t  "  How  can  such  words  be  real- 
ized, how  can  we  claim  the  I  AM,  Him  in  whose  sight  the  an- 
gels are  not  pure,  as  our  Father  ?  This  was  the  question  which 
St.  James  would  have  wished  to  excite  in  the  readers  of  the 
prophets  ;  he  would  have  wished  equally  that  the  members  of 
the  Church  should  feel  that  they  had  not  some  special  privi- 
lege then  for  the  first  time  by  some  new  and  magical  operation 
conferred  upon  them,  but  that  their  highest  privilege  was  fully 
to  know  that  relation  which  God  had  been  gradually  revealing 
to  their  fathers,  without  which  they  could  not  understand  or  act 
out  their  position  as  Israelites. 

St.  James  adds,  "  they  were  begotten  by  the  word  of  truth." 
I  do  not  at  all  insist  upon  this  expression  being  interpreted  as 
an  Alexandrian  Jew  would  of  course  have  interpreted  it,  by  the 
great  passage  in  the  8th  chapter  of  the  book  of  Proverbs  ;  I  do 
not  insist  that  the  word  of  truth  must  mean  a  person.  St.  James 
might  not  intend  directly  to  raise  that  question  by  his  language  ; 
it  had  been  raised  already  by  the  language  of  the  Old  Testament. 
The  Jews  were  full  of  conscious  questionings  whether  the  Word 
or  Wisdom  who  was  with  the  Lord  as  one  brought  up  with  Him, 
and  whose  delights  from  the  first  had  been  with  the  sons  of  men, 
must  not  be  a  living  bond  between  men  and  God,  the  organ  of 
all  spiritual  communications.  Taking  the  phrase  in  its  lowest 
sense,  it  imported  to  every  Jew  that  the  unseen  God  whom  he 


THE    EPISTLE    OF    ST.    JAMES.  225 

might  not  contemplate  in  any  image,  had  held  converse  with  his 
mind  and  heart,  had  spoken  continually  to  that  which  was  within 
him.  Whatever  mo?'e  the  word  of  truth  may  signify,  it  can  im- 
port nothing  less  than  that  God  by  communications  to  His  crea- 
ture had  brought  him  out  of  his  natural  darkness,  his  pursuit  and 
worship  of  visible  things,  that  he  might  be  under  a  spiritual 
guidance.  The  circumcision  of  the  Israelite,  the  cutting  off  of 
his  flesh,  his  separation  from  the  surrounding  nations,  betokened 
this.  Lawgivers  and  prophets  were  continually  explaining  this 
as  the  intent  of  it.  Surely  it  was  most  needful  that  the  believer 
in  Jesus  should  not  fancy  that  his  privilege  was  of  a  different 
kind,  that  he  had  come  into  a  more  outward  economy,  that  he  was 
not  the  subject  of  an  inward  government.  At  the  same  time  St. 
James  takes  occasion  to  remind  the  Jew,  that  if  he  understood 
the  privilege  which  belonged  to  him  aright,  if  he  claimed  it  ac- 
cording to  the  divine  sense  and  interpretation  of  it,  he  could 
only  look  upon  himself  as  begotten  to  be  a  kind  of  first-fruits  of 
God's  creatures.  The  covenant  to  Abraham  could  not  be  ful- 
filled, if  in  him  and  in  his  seed  all  the  families  of  the  earth  were 
not  blessed.  But  could  any  hint  be  more  valuable  to  the  con- 
verted Jew,  than  that  his  little  sect,  of  Nazarenes  was  only  the 
first-fruits  of  a  vast  harvest,  which  would  be  gathered  in  } 

Here  is  the  great  principle,  as  I  conceive,  of  St.  James's 
Epistle.  Here  is  the  truth  from  which  all  his  exhortations 
and  warnings  are  corollaries.  It  is  a  Jewish  principle,  no  doubt, 
as  I  have  been  trying  to  show.  But  is  it  less  an  evangelical 
principle  ?  Would  St.  James  have  been  a  more  spiritual  teacher 
if  he  had  continually  repeated  the  name  Jesus  Christ,  instead  of 
thus  leading  his  countrymen  to  study  the  very  nature  of  His 
government  ?  I  think  if  he  had  taken  the  course  which  his 
modern  critics  would  have  considered  the  most  apostolical,  and 
the  highest  proof  of  his  advancement,  he  would  have  proved 
that  his  apprehension  of  the  Gospel  was  more  nominal  than  sub- 
stantial.  I  do  not  mean,  as  I  hope  I  shall  presently  show,  that 
the  name  Jesus  Christ  has  not  a  precious  significance  and 
reality,   and  that  there  were  not  teachers,  some  even  wlio  are 


226  LECTURE     II. 

often  carelessly  classified  with  St.  James,  whose  special  office  it 
was  to  bring  out  this  Name  in  its  fulness  and  power,  to  present 
the  acts  of  the  Man  Christ  Jesus  as  objects  of  faith,  as  uniting 
His  work  on  earth  to  His  work  in  heaven.  But  I  believe  that 
the  important  task  which  was  committed  to  them  would  have 
been  inadequately  fulfilled,  if  there  had  not  been  a  St.  James  to 
exhibit  first  and  most  prominently  Him  of  whose  mind  the  divine 
word  was  the  utterance,  that  Jews  might  be  led  to  ask,  how  all 
the  prophecies  of  their  old  covenant,  that  he  should  one  day 
prove  Himself  to  be  their  Father,  could  actually  and  indeed 
be  fulfilled. 

Does  the  apparent  confusion  of  two  classes  of  Jews,  so  utterly 
different  in  all  their  feelings  and  habits  of  mind,  seem  very 
strange  to  the  reader  of  the  Epistle  in  our  day  ?  I  dare  say  that 
it  does.  I  do  not  wonder  that  it  should  be  so.  But  I  will  ask 
him  first  to  consider  whether  I  am  putting  it  into  the  letter, 
whether  the  superscription  of  it,  and  very  much  of  the  character 
of  it,  do  not  compel  me  to  take  this  view  of  it  ?  Next,  whether 
each  of  these  classes  did  not  learn  something  which  it  was 
greatly  concerned  to  learn,  by  means  of  this  apparent  confusion? 
Lastly,  whether  those  passages  which  do  obviously  point  directly 
to  the  believer  in  Jesus  Christ,  are  not  warnings  against  evils 
which  the  church  was  adopting  and  inheriting  from  the  Jew, 
which  there  was  great  hazard  of  its  preserving  and  transmitting, 
and  which  were  most  criminal  in  it  because  they  were  espe- 
cially treasons  against  the  Man  of  Sorrows. 

Let  us  consider  these  questions  a  little.  St.  James  goes  on  to 
say,  that  "  as  God  had  begotten  them  by  the  Word  of  truth,  they 
should  be  swift  to  hear,  slow  to  speak,  slow  to  wrath.  They 
should  receive  with  meekness  the  engrafted  Word,  which  was 
able  to  save  their  souls.  But  they  must  be  doers,  not  hearers 
only.  Because  whoever  was  only  a  hearer  was  like  a  man 
beholding  the  form  of  his  generation  (the  original  after  which  he 
was  created)  in  a  mirror,  and  then  who  went  away  and  forgot 
what  manner  of  man  he  was."  All  these  exhortations  arise 
naturally  from    the    truth,  that  there    was    a    divine    Lord  and 


THE    EPISTLE    OF    ST.    JAMES.  227 

Teacher  near,  whose  voice  they  were  drowning  with  the  noise  of 
their  own  words  and  the  tumult  of  their  own  passions,  who  was 
ready  to  implant  in  them  the  seed  of  a  new  life,  after  whose 
image  they  were  formed,  by  doing  whose  commands  they  were 
proving  that  they  confessed  their  relationship  to  Him  and 
His  authority  over  them.  Such  an  invisible  government  every 
Jew  instructed  in  the  law  of  his  forefathers,  who  entered  into 
the  meaning  of  the  Psalms  and  the  Prophets,  acknowledged. 
Such  was  the  preparation  for  acknowledging  the  divine  Teacher 
who  had  spoken  with  human  lips,  but  had  spoken  directly  to  the 
inner  mind  and  had  called  upon  that  to  submit  to  His  govern- 
ment. On  the  other  hand,  how  little  could  a  believer  in  Jesus 
understand  his  rights  and  position,  if  he  merely  confessed  a  cer- 
tain teacher  who  had  been  born  at  Bethlehem,  and  died  on 
Cavalry,  and  did  not  own  Him  as  the  secret  ruler  of  his  heart 
and  reins. 

St.  James  being  convinced  that  the  believer  in  Jesus  was  the 
true  Jew^,  was  bound  to  practise  all  the  religious  observances 
which  his  position  in  Jerusalem  enabled  him  to  practise.  The 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  the  passages  respecting  him  in 
Josephus,  can  leave  no  doubt  upon  our  minds  that  he  was,  in  the 
Jewish  sense  of  the  word,  the  most  religious  man  of  the  city. 
Yet  here  we  have  him  saying,  that  "if  any  man  seem  to  be  relig- 
ious and  bridleth  not  his  tongue,  that  man's  religion  is  vain  ;  " 
and  that  "  pure  religion  and  undefiled  before  God  is  to  visit  the 
fatherless  and  widows  in  their  affliction,  and  to  keep  himself 
unspotted  from  the  world."  A  more  remarkable  testimony, 
coming  from  such  a  quarter,  believing  or  unbelieving  Jews  could 
scarcely  receive.  The  latter,  who  were  always  tempted  to  make 
devotion  consist  of  observances,  were  told  that  these  obser- 
vances themselves  meant,  that  there  was  an  invisible  Ruler,  who 
was  conversing  with  the  heart  and  exercising  dominion  over 
it.  The  others,  who  were  disposed  enough  to  make  their  privi- 
leges, as  children  of  Abraham,  a  reason  for  separation  from  their 
Gentile  brethren,  were  led  at  once  to  the  inward  principle  and 
practical  result,  which  alone  made  their  privileges  of  any  value. 


228  LECTURE     II. 

Then  follows  a  passage  in  which  there  is  a  direct  allusion  to 
the  faith  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Lord  of  glory.  And 
what  occasions  this  apparent  departure  from  the  general  method 
of  the  Epistle?  This  faith,  he  says,  is  not  to  be  held  with 
respect  of  persons.  For  if  a  man  came  into  their  assemblies 
with  a  gold  ring  and  with  goodly  apparel,  and  there  came  in 
a  poor  man  in  vile  raiment,  and  they  had  respect  to  the  man  in 
gay  clothing,  and  said  to  him,  "  Sit  thou  here  in  a  good  place," 
and  said  to  the  poor,  "  Stand  thou  here,  or  sit  under  his 
footstool,"  would  not  they  be  partial  in  themselves  and  judges  of 
evil  thoughts  ?  No  doubt  such  things  had  occurred  and  were 
occurring  in  Christian  assemblies;  no  doubt  they  had  excited  the 
especial  notice  and  contempt  of  unbelieving  onlookers,  who 
thought  themselves  great  worshippers  of  Mammon,  at  once  per- 
ceived the  contradiction  when  it  was  presented  to  them  in  the 
Nazarenes.  St.  James  at  once,  for  the  sake  of  both  classes  of 
his  brethren,  admits  and  proclaims  the  contradiction.  He 
allows  that  it  is  much  grosser  in  those  who  confess  Him  who  was 
called  the  Carpenter's  Son,  who  took  upon  him  the  form  of 
a  servant,  than  in  all  others.  And  hence  he  is  able  to  show  by 
a  new  argument  how  Jesus  Christ  fulfilled  the  law.  Why  ought 
they  not,  if  they  believed  in  Him,  to  treat  any  poor  man  as 
beneath  them  ?  Because  he  came  to  embody  in  himself,  and  to 
enable  them  to  exhibit  in  themselves,  the  royal  law,  "Thou  shalt 
love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  A  royal  law  indeed,  the  very  law 
in  the  heart  of  the  king,  to  which  if  they  would  not  submit,  they 
came  under  the  penalty  and  terror  of  another  law,  a  law  which 
must  be  fulfilled  in  every  point,  a  law  of  slavery ;  whereas  they 
might  obey  the  law  of  liberty,  the  law  by  which  they  would 
be  judged,  if  they  did  not  choose  the  other  in  preference  to  it. 
What  a  fine  way  of  teaching  a  Jew  the  very  meaning  of  his  own 
book  of  Deuteronomy  !  How  wonderfully  does  the  Christian's 
sin  become  a  lesson,  as  to  the  need  which  a  Jew  had  of  Christ, 
that  the  law  might  not  be  destroyed,  but  fulfilled. 

The   famous    argument    respecting  faith    and  works    follows 
most  naturally  upon  all  that  has  been  said  already.     "What  doth 


THE    EPISTLE    OF    ST.   JAMES.  229 

it  profit,  my  brethren,  though  a  man  say  he  hath  faith  and  have 
not  works  ?  can  faith  save  him  ?  "  We  fancy  this  was  a  Christian 
temptation.  It  was  also  most  emphatically  a  Jewish  one.  The 
instance  St.  James  gives,  explains  the  nature  of  it  clearly. 
"  Thou  belie  vest  there  is  one  God."  Thou  thinkest  thou  art  not 
as  other  men  are.  Thou  dost  not  worship  visible  things,  a  mul- 
titude of  idols.  That  is  excellent.  The  devils  also  believe 
and  tremble.  Faith  in  a  God  who  tempts  us  for  our  good,  from 
whom  cometh  every  good  and  perfect  gift,  who  of  his  own  will 
begat  us,  this  St.  James  had  been  putting  forward  as  the  very 
pillar  of  life.  It  was  faith  and  trust  in  a  living  Being,  who  would 
work  in  them  to  do  all  right  things.  But  faith  that  there  is  one 
God,  or  faith  that  there  is  a  Christ,  or  faith  that  Jesus  is  the 
Christ,  faith  not  in  a  living  Being  but  about  one,  could  this  save 
any  human  being?  could  it  raise  anyone  out  of  sin?  could 
it  make  him  better  than  he  was  before  ?  No  ;  like  the  devils  he 
would  believe  and  tremble,  utterly  separated  from  the  Being 
whom  he  confessed,  rising  to  no  thankful  apprehension  or 
worship  of  Him,  receiving  no  energy  or  operation  from  Him. 
Abraham  believed  God— not  that  there  is  one  God— and  so 
he  offered  Isaac  his  son  upon  the  altar,  because  God  wrought 
with  him,  and  by  works  his  faith  was  made  perfect.  For  as  the 
body  without  the  breath  is  dead,  as  the  body  requires  a  quicken- 
ing influence  to  make  it  move  and  exert  itself,  so  faith  which 
does  not  attach  itself  to  a  living  person,  and  receives  a  vital 
breath  from  Him  which  enables  it  to  work,  is  dead  also.  Faith 
is  not  and  cannot  be,  according  to  St.  James's  way  of  looking  at 
it,  the  spirit  or  quickening  principle  ;  that  must  be  what  responds 
to  faith,  God's  power  working  in  the  man  who  trusts  Him. 

The  next  passage,  on  the  government  of  the  tongue,  is  in 
strict  accordance  with  all  this  teaching.  "  What  an  insignificant, 
unevangelical  subject  for  an  Apostle  to  write  upon,"  says,  with 
his  lips  or  with  his  heart  some  Pauline  partisan.  Yes,  if  the 
dominion  over  the  inner  man,  the  government -of  the  heart  and 
reins  and  will— which  is  implied  in  the  government  of  the 
tongue,   which    St.    James    directly  connects    with    it— belongs 


230  LECTURE    II. 

to  mere  legal  doctrine,  St.  James  is  essentially  legal.  But 
there  may  be  persons  to  whom  any  illumination  upon  that  subject 
seems  in  the  l^ighest  degree  spiritual,  who  feel  that  this  is  just 
the  knowledge  which  takes  them  out  of  the  circle  of  letters  and 
laws  that  have  reference  to  conduct,  that  merely  restrains  evil, 
and  carries  them  to  the  springs  and  sources  of  all  true  and 
divine  life.  Here  especially  do  we  find  that  which  St.  James  is 
so  evidently  endeavoring  to  set  forth,  the  law  of  social  life, 
whether  in  the  nation  or  the  Church,  under  the  new  economy  or 
the  old.  It  was  the  same  unbelief  in  the  actual  government  of 
God  over  the  inner  man,  the  same  bitter  envying  and  strife 
in  the  heart,  which  was  destroying  Jerusalem,  which  was  threat- 
ening the  Christian  community  in  that  day,  which  would  threaten 
it  in  all  days.  All  good  things  come  from  above.  But  the 
wisdom,  the  craft,  which  set  them  plotting  one  against  another, 
was  not  from  above,  but  was  earthly,  sensual,  devilish.  Yet 
there  was  the  other  wisdom.  It  was  given  them,  though  they 
might  pervert  it  to  evil  ;  the  wisdom  which  is  first  pure,  then 
peaceable,  gentle,  and  easy  to  be  entreated,  full  of  mercy  and 
good  fruits,  without  partiality  and  without  hypocrisy. 

This  clause  of  the  Epistle  ends  with  the  law  of  peace,  which  is 
preserved  by  obedience  to  the  divine  Spirit  of  peace.  The  next 
opens  with  the  question,  "  From  whence  then  comes  war  and 
fighting  among  you  ?  "  Surely  from  the  lusts  in  your  members^ 
which  are  striving  against  this  Spirit  of  peace.  Submission 
to  this  Spirit  is  the  secret  of  all  quietness  ;  resistance  to  it,  of  all 
discord  within  and  without.  All  pride,  self-glorying,  arrange- 
ment of  plans  for  the  future,  proceeds  from  the  same  unwilling- 
ness to  be  subject  to  the  inner  Ruler,  the  same  unbelief  that  He 
is  working  in  us  to  do  the  right  thing  and  withstand  the  wrong. 

The  last  passage  in  the  Epistle,  that  which  is  included  in  our 
fifth  chapter  of  it,  has  direct  reference  to  a  judgment  which  the 
Apostle  believed  was  approaching.  The  hour  was  coming  when 
the  rich  proud  man  would  be  called  to  account  for  the  hire  of  the 
laborer  which  he  had  kept  back  by  fraud,  when  the  gold  and 
silver  would  be  found   to  be  cankered,  when  the   rust  of  them 


THE    EPISTLE    OF    ST.    JAMES.  23I 

would  be  a  witness  against  the  hoarders,  and  would  eat  their 
flesh  as  it  were  fire.  To  Mammon-worshipping  Jews,  whether 
they  professed  to  believe  in  Jesus  or  to  reject  Him,  the 
words  were  equally  applicable.  St.  James  was  no  respecter 
of  persons.  He  cared  not  to  exempt  them  or  their  heathen  per- 
secutors ;  he  wished  each  to  take  the  lesson  home  ;  and  each  too 
might  strengthen  himself  with  the  words,  "  Be  patient,  therefore, 
brethren,  unto  the  coming  of  the  Lord."  Had  they  acknowl- 
edged the  coming  of  Christ  in  the  flesh,  surely  they  could  not 
be  content,  unless  it  were  shown  to  all  that  He  was  the  King. 
Had  they  not  acknowledged  Him,  were  they  still  looking  out  for 
a  great  king  and  judge,  let  them  look  and  wait ;  only  let  them  ask 
themselves  whether  any  but  such  a  judge  as  this,  any  but  One 
who  had  cared  for  men  and  suffered  for  men,  could  be  the  judge 
and  deliverer  they  wanted,  whether  they  could  bear  to  look 
upon  any  other.  The  patience  of  Job,  of  the  prophets,  of  all 
that  had  gone  before,  had  surely  been  recorded  for  their 
encouragement  and  example.  They  might  be  patient  as  these 
were.  They  might  check  all  natural  restlessness,  and  wait  for  a 
coming  deliverance  as  these  had  done.  They  would  not  be  dis- 
appointed. The  deliverance  was  coming.  But  if  they  were  not 
waiting,  if  they  were  weary,  discontented,  hopeless ....  Jews, 
Christians,  why  was  that  ? 

Such  I  think  is  the  tenor  of  this  Epistle,  which  some  would 
persuade  us  was  written  to  discourage  faith  and  teach  con- 
formity to  an  outward  law.  It  is,  I  apprehend,  one  of  the  most 
wonderful  exhortations  to  trust  in  an  inward  spiritual  teacher, 
law-giver,  life-giver.  It  is  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  re-delivered 
after  that  Spirit  had  descended  who  could  indeed  make  men 
perfect  as  their  Father  in  heaven  was  perfect.  If  the  writer  of  it 
had  not  acknowledged  a  Son  of  God  and  a  Son  of  Man  who 
had  established  His  kingdom  among  men,  his  Epistle  would 
consist  of  a  number  of  incoherent  sentences,  utterly  ineffectual 
for  any  moral  use.  That  faith  converts  it  into  a  living  whole, 
into  one  of  the  most  practical  discourses,  upon  which  that  or  any 
age  could  meditate. 


232  LECTURE    II. 


ST.  JUDE. 

We  know  almost  nothing  of  St.  Jude.  He  described  himself  as 
the  brother  of  James.  That  description  occurring  at  the  outset  of 
a  short  Epistle,  shows  that  he  desired  to  acknowledge  a  relation- 
ship with  him  which  was  more  than  one  of  blood.  He  must,  at 
all  events^  have  been  writing  to  men  familiar  with  his  name, 
to  those  who  would  regard  it  with  a  kind  of  reverence  which  they 
felt  for  that  of  no  other  Apostle,  perhaps  of  no  other  man. 
Though  the  form  of  his  superscription  is  a  general  one,  though 
its  warnings  belong  to  all  times,  we  have  a  right  to  assume  that 
he  meant  them  especially  for  the  church  at  Jerusalem  ;  we  are 
bound  to  assume  that  they  applied  to  acts  and  tendencies  which 
he  witnessed  in  his  own  day.  A  reader  must  have  parted  with 
all  belief  in  the  sincerity  of  the  inspired  writer — I  should  fear 
must  have  parted  with  his  own — who  can  imagine  that  language 
so  direct,  personal,  awful,  was  merely  written  in  a  study  for  the 
edification  of  future  times,  and  was  not  meant  to  warn  men 
of  his  own  day,  of  an  approaching  judgment  and  an  approaching 
apostasy.  But  if  it  be  so,  and  we  are  not  determined  to  strike 
this  Epistle  out  of  the  canon  (and  what  motive  there  could 
be  for  the  later  forgery  of  a  document  so  distinctly  referring 
to  that  time,  it  is  not  easy  to  understand),  we  must  give  up  any 
notions  about  the  purity  of  the  primitive  Church,  which  interfere 
with  the  belief  that  it  was  shaken  to  its  very  centre  by  the  con- 
vulsions of  the  period  preceding  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  that  there 
was  not  merely  a  declension,  but  a  positive  apostasy  in  individ- 
uals and  churches,  that  the  judgment  upon  Jerusalem  did  not 
merely  affect  those  who  had  denied  the  Gospel  ;  but  was  even  a 
more  sifting  day  to  those  who  had  received  it.  All  our  Lord's 
words  would  have  led  us  to  expect  that  this  must  be  so.  If  the 
plain  language  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  means  any  thing,  it 
must  have  been  so.  St.  Jude's  Epistle,  coming  from  a  quarter 
the  most  different  from  any  whence   that  Epistle  has  ever  been 


THE    FIRST    EPISTLE    OF    ST.    PETER.  233 

supposed  to  come,  supplies  us  with  the  most  distinct  confirma- 
tion of  all  its  warnings. 


ST.  PETER.     FIRST  EPISTLE. 

Any  person  who  considers  the  passages  in  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  which  refer  to  St.  Peter,  will,  I  think,  be  of  opinion  that 
he  was  only  for  a  short  time  settled  in  Jerusalem,  though  he  may 
have  returned  to  it  often,  especially  on  great  occasions,  like  that 
of  the  debate  respecting  circumcision.  We  hear  of  him  as  tarry- 
ing in  Joppa,  going  to  Caesarea,  being  found  at  Antioch.  In 
his  Epistle  he  addresses  the  strangers  scattered  abroad  in  Pon- 
tus,  Cappadocia,  Galatia,  Asia  and  Bithynia,  apparently  as  a  per- 
son who  has  visited  them  and  dwelt  among  them.  If  we  con- 
nect these  intimations  with  the  popular  tradition  that  he  was  at 
one  time  Bishop  of  Antioch,  and  at  another  of  Rome,  and  with 
the  great  ecclesiastical  theory  which  represents  him  as  the  uni- 
versal Bishop,  we  may  arrive  at  some  more  intelligible  concep- 
tion respecting  him,  than  these  contradictory  reports,  taken 
by  themselves,  will  give  us.  Is  it  necessary  to  suppose  that  St. 
Peter  ever  occupied  anywhere  a  position  analogous  to  that 
of  St.  James  at  Jerusalem  ?  May  it  not  have  been  intended  by 
the  Divine  Ruler  of  the  Church,  may  not  His  intentions  have 
been  accomplished  by  a  series  of  what  would  be  called  very 
natural  accidents,  that  one  of  the  Apostles  of  the  circumcision 
should  be  the  overseer  of  the  first  Christian  society,  should  live 
in  the  city,  should  exhibit  a  pattern  of  righteousness  in  it,  should 
write  from  it  to  the  twelve  tribes,  should  be  sacrificed  there  ;  and 
that  another  Apostle,  also  primarily  of  the  circumcison,  though 
the  opener  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  to  the  Gentiles,  should 
exercise  a  general  oversight,  never  tying  himself  to  any  one 
locality,  and  if  resident  anywhere  for  a  time,  not  assuming 
any  specific  jurisdiction }  Those  who  are  acquainted  with  the 
records  of  the  first  century,  will  recollect  several  difficulties 
respecting  Antioch  and  Rome,  which  would  be  reconciled  by  this 


234  LECTURE     II. 

hypothesis,  and  they  will  understand  how  easily  the  opposite  one 
might  gain  ground  from  the  determination  to  apply  to  an  earlier 
time  a  fixed  type  which  strictly  belongs  to  a  later  one.  But  the 
main  necessity  for  this  or  some  similar  view  of  St.  Peter's  office, 
arises,  I  conceive,  from  the  consideration  of  his  epistle. 

At  the  conclusion  of  that  epistle,  our  translators  have  intro- 
duced the  v/ords  "  The  Church  which  is  in  Babylon,  elected 
together  with  you,  saluteth  you."  Nearly  all  modern  commenta- 
tors have  protested  against  this  version  as  a  quite  monstrous 
paraphrase  upon  the  original.  But  it  is  open,  I  believe,  to  an 
objection  quite  as  grave  as  the  etymological  one.  How  could 
the  Church  at  Babylon  be  elected  together  with  those  to  whom 
St.  Peter  wrote  .'*  Who  .were  they .''  The  strangers  dispersed 
through  a  number  of  countries  in  Asia.  The  Church  in  Philippi 
might  by  rather  a  bold  and  unusual  form  of  speech  be  said  to  be 
elected  together  with  the  Church  of  Ephesus  or  Rome.  Here 
the  expression  is  without  any  force  at  all.  The  fact,  I  believe,  is 
that  the  word  ecclesia  in  St.  Paul's  sense  of  it,  is  not  and  could 
not  be  found  in  St.  Peter's  epistle.  The  Jewish  nation  was  still 
to  him  the  body  called  out  of  all  lands.  Gentiles  might  be 
joined  to  it,  but  it  was  the  nucleus  or  heart  of  any  divine  society 
which  would  be  formed  in  the  world.  And  hence  it  has  come  to 
pass  that  St.  Peter's  Epistle  has  in  all  times  been  called  a 
Catholic  Epistle.  That  is  to  say,  it  is  not  limited  to  any  par- 
ticular city  or  neighborhood.  It  belongs  to  a  body  which, 
though  far  enough  from  universal,  yet  had  in  it  the  seed  of 
universality,  and  in  its  dispersion  throughout  different  lands  was 
testifying  of  a  society  which  should  belong  equally  to  all. 

In  these  observations  upon  what  may  seem  only  the  outward 
form  of  the  Epistle,  I  believe  I  have  indicated  its  most  essential 
characteristics.  Every  one  has  perceived  that  it  is  in  some 
respects  most  unlike  the  Epistle  of  St.  James.  De  Wette  and 
other  German  commentators  exclaim  with  astonishment  that  its 
tone  is  almost  Pauline.  There  I  cannot  agree  with  them.  I 
believe  that  in  its  method  and  immediate  design  it  is  quite 
as  distinct  from  the  letters  of  one  of  these  Apostles  as  of  the 


THE    FIRST    EPISTLE    OF    ST.    PETER.  235 

Other.  In  its  spirit  and  its  ultimate  object  I  believe  it  is  equally 
in  harmony  with  both. 

The  continual  introduction  of  the  name  of  Christ  is  the  obvi- 
ous difference  between  it  and  the  epistle  we  last  considered.  It 
is  by  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead  that  the 
God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  had  begotten  them. 
Their  faith  was  to  be  tried  with  fire  that  it  might  be  found  unto 
praise  and  honor  and  glory  at  the  appearing  of  Jesus  Christ. 
The  spirit  of  Christ  in  the  prophets  testified  beforehand  the  suf- 
ferings of  Christ,  and  the  glory  that  should  follow.  They  were 
to  hope  for  the  grace  that  should  be  brought  unto  them  at  the 
revelation  of  Jesus  Christ.  They  were  redeemed  from  their  vain 
conversation  wii"h  the  precious  blood  of  Christ. 

It  is  obvious,  I  think,  that  Christ  is  here  set  before  them 
expressly  as  an  object  of  faith,  as  a  centre  to  which  they  were  to 
turn,  and  to  wiiich  God  was  continually  attracting  them.  Such 
an  object  was  precisely  what  men  scattered  abroad  and  endur- 
ing a  great  fight  of  afflictions  wanted.  Jerusalem  still  existed. 
But  could  they  feel  about  it  as  they  once  did  ?  could  they  feel 
that  it  was  indeed  their  capital,  their  home }  The  temple  was 
still  standing.  But  was  it  a  real  practical  bond  of  cohesion  and 
sympathy  to  wanderers  and  outcasts  ?  St.  Peter  leads  them  away 
from  the  city  and  temple  to  Him  who  had  given  the  city  its  real 
worth  in  the  eyes  of  all  who  came  up  to  it,  to  Him  who 
had  dwelt  in  the  temple,  and  had  met  the  true  wor- 
shippers there.  "To  whom  coming  as  mito  a  living  stone, 
disallowed  indeed  of  men,  but  chosen  of  God  and  precious,  they 
as  lively  stones  were  built  up  a  spiritual  house  to  offer  up 
spiritual  sacrifices  acceptable  to  Gid  by  Jesus  Christ."  This 
thought  of  a  divine  temple  consisting  of  living  men,  and  of 
a  corner-stone  by  whom  and  in  whom  they  could  alone  cohere, 
may  be  traced  throughout  the  whole  epistle.  From  first  to  last 
he  seems  to  be  telling  them  of  a  unity  which  existed  for  them, 
and  which  they  might  enjoy  in  spite  of  their  dispersion,  if  only 
they  would  recognize  the  living -ground  of  it,  if  only  they  would 
move  round  the  true  centre,  and  not  try  to  exist  as  separate 
atoms  apart  from  it. 


236  LECTURE     II. 

Having  this  end  steadily  before  him,  St.  Peter  could  not 
write  to  Jews  simply  as  such,  in  the  way  that  St.  James  was 
justified  in  writing  and  obliged  to  write.  It  was  not  their  elec- 
tion that  St.  Peter  chiefly  desired  to  insist  upon,  though  he  was 
most  anxious  that  they  should  remember  it  and  understand  it. 
It  was  the  bond  of  their  fellowship  to  one  another.  But  that 
fellowship  they  could  only  realize  when  they  confessed  a  living 
Christ  to  be  implied  in  law,  priesthood,  and  temple.  The  dis- 
persed Jews,  however  they  might  desire  to  claim  brotherhood  with 
each  other,  however  they  might  use  the  name  of  brother,  would 
be  severed  in  heart  and  mind  as  well  as  in  place,  until  they  con- 
fessed One  who  was  above  all  place,  who  had  ascended  on  high, 
as  their  common  brother  ;  until  they  loved  Him  and  rejoiced  in 
Him  with  joy  unspeakable.  But  they  could  not  do  this  unless 
they  believed  that  He  had  actually  suffered  for  them  and  with 
them;  unless  they  acknowledged  Jesus  the  sufferer  to  be  the  Christ. 

St.  Peter's  Epistle  then  is  in  one  sense  more  exclusive  than 
that  of  St.  James.  It  seems  more  distinctly  to  cut  off  the  un- 
believing Jew  from  the  blessings  of  the  new  covenant.  But  it 
does  so  in  no  formal  manner,  by  no  harsh  edict  of  excommuni- 
cation. The  Jew  had  a  right  to  look  upon  himself  as  belonging 
to  a  royal  priesthood,  a  holy  nation,  a  peculiar  people.  Only  he 
was  to  understand  on  what  foundation  his  royalty,  his  priesthood, 
his  election,  stood.  He  was  not  to  build  it  upon  any  thing  fleshly 
or  external,  but  on  Him  by  whom  they  had  been  redeemed,  by 
whose  blood  they  had  been  sprinkled.  Thus  their  union  was  rep- 
resented as  holy,  spiritual,  internal,  grounded  upon  their  rela- 
tion to  One  whom  they  could  only  know  by  faith,  who  had  come 
expressly  to  deliver  them  from  outward  sensual  vanities,  and  to 
bring  them  to  an  inheritance  eternal,  incorruptible,  undefiled, 
and  that  fadeth  not  away. 

And  thus  in  another  sense,  this  Epistle  is  more  comprehensive 
than  that  of  St.  James.  Though  the  Jew  is  always  present  to 
the  mind  of  St.  Peter,  though  all  his  language,  all  his  thoughts, 
are  derived  from  the  Old  Testament,  though  it  is  the  Shepherd, 
the  Corner-stone,  the  Priest  of  Israel,  he   is  setting  before  them. 


THE    FIRST    EPISTLE    OF    ST.    PETER.  2  3/ 

Still  there  is  nothing  in  his  language  which  any  baptized  Gentile 
might  not  feel  to  be  his  own,  and  joyfully  appropriate.  If  this 
living  stone  be  the  bond  of  a  spiritual  temple,  it  must  be  because 
all  men  are  spiritual  beings,  and  have  a  relation  to  Him  ;  be- 
cause apart  from  Him  they  do  not  know  or  realize  their  own 
spiritual  condition.  While  therefore  St.  Peter  uses  the  diffusion 
of  the  circumcised  body  over  different  heathen  nations  as  the 
witness  of  a  real  divine  federation,  which  circumstances  cannot 
break  up  or  persecutions  annihilate,  he  at  the  same  time  shows 
how  a  body  might  continue  to  exist  in  all  lands  which  had  no 
mark  of  circumcision  at  all,  which  merely  stood  upon  the  Name 
of  Him  who  had  called  them  out  of  darkness  into  His  marvellous 
light.  At  times  we  are  almost  tempted  to  feel  that  the  Gentiles 
were  specially  present  to  the  Apostle's  mind,  as  where  he  says, 
"  which  in  time  past  were  not  a  people,  but  are  now  the  people 
of  God  ;  which  had  not  obtained  merc}^,  but  now  have  obtained 
mercy."  Yet  such  language  would  not  be  felt  as  strange  by 
Jews  who  had  for  years  been  cut  off  from  all  spiritual  privileges, 
who  had  been  regarded  as  strangers  among  Gentiles,  without 
really  having  any  sense  of  communion  with  each  other.  And  if 
we  hold,  as  I  think  we  have  every  right  to  hold,  that  St.  Peter 
had  fallen  in  with  many  descendants  of  those  Israelites  who  had 
never  returned  to  Jerusalem  in  virtue  of  the  decree  of  Cyrus,  who, 
whether  they  had  shared  the  first  or  the  second  captivity,  had  never 
known  any  thing  of  the  restored  city  or  the  second  temple,we  may 
feel  that  their  recognition  as  members  of  the  commonwealth  of 
Israel,  as  joint-heirs  of  a  divine  inheritance,  as  called  by  the 
divine  Shepherd  into  his  fold,  must  have  been  a  Gospel  indeed. 

I  need  not  point  out  to  any  one  how  carefully  St.  Peter  con- 
stitutes all  relationships  of  husbands  and  wives,  parents  and 
children,  masters  and  servants,  upon  the  basis  of  the  common 
relation  to  Christ ;  how  all  the  obligations  of  elders  to  their 
flocks,  the  duty  of  not  being  lords  over  God's  heritage  :  how  the 
duty  to  civil  governors,  all  mutual  services,  obligations,  courte- 
sies, are  placed  on  the  same  ground  ;  how  the  whole  framework 
of  human  society  is  shown  to  rest  on  Him  who  gave  up  Himself  ; 


238  LECTURE    II. 

to  rest  upon  self-sacrifice,  and  therefore  on  that  complete  and 
accepted  sacrifice  of  which  all  others  are  to  be  the  images,  in 
the  power  of  which  all  others  are  to  be  offered.  But  I  would 
ask,  whether  the  idea  of  tilial  obedience  and  filial  sacrifice,  of  a 
Son  who  is  come  to  make  men  sons  of  God,  is  not  as  much  the 
subject  of  this  epistle  as  of  the  last ;  whether  their  great  and 
striking  differences  do  not  make  this  cardinal  resemblance  more 
conspicuous  ?  And  I  would  just  suggest  a  question,  which  I 
may  have  to  press  upon  some  future  occasion,  whether  of  all 
Epistles  in  the  Bible,  St.  Peter's  is  not  the  one  which,  as  much 
by  its  direct  statements  as'  by  its  omissions,  proves  that  Jesus 
Christ  the  Son  of  God,  and  not  any  man  whatsoever,  certainly 
not  St.  Peter  himself,  is  the  rock  upon  which  the  Catholic  body 
must  stand,  and  against  which  the  gates  of  Hell  shall  not  prevail  ? 


ST.  PETER.     SECOND  EPISTLE. 

Allusions  to  St.  Paul  have  been  imagined  in  the  Epistle  of 
St.  James  ;  his  name  is  formally  introduced  into  the  Second 
Epistle  of  St.  Peter.  It  is  obvious  that  there  was  an  antecedent 
improbability  of  such  a  reference  in  the  one  case  which  does  not 
exist  in  the  other.  St.  James  was  writing  to  the  twelve  tribes, 
to  people  who,  whether  believers  or  unbelievers  in  Jesus,  re- 
garded the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  with  suspicion  and  dread, 
and  were  not  in  the  least  danger  of  misusing  his  authority  or  his 
statements  to  their  own  destruction.  St.  James,  who  at  all  events 
was  thoroughly  and  profoundly  practical,  cannot  be  suspected 
by  any  one  who  reads  his  letter,  of  combating  tendencies  to 
which  his  disciples  were  not  exposed  ;  he  aimed  directly  at  the 
diseases  which  he  had  seen  in  them.  St.  Peter,  who  writes  to 
those  "  that  have  obtained  like  precious  faith  with  us," — who,  as 
is  evident  from  the  superscription  of  his  first  letter,  had  travelled' 
over  the  very  ground  in  which  some  of  St.  Paul's  most  flourish- 
ing Chtirches  were  established,  who,  though  he  regarded  Chris- 
tians not  as  connected  with  particular  cities,  but   as  members  of 


THE    SECOND    EPISTLE    OF    ST.    PETER.  239 

the  commonwealth  of  Israel,  yet  had  been  the  first  to  recognize 
Gentiles  as  entitled  to  enter  that  commonwealth,  would  inevit- 
ably come  into  contact  with  St.  Paul's  converts,  or  with  those 
who  had  received  impressions  from  him  directly  or  at  second 
hand,  and  might  feel  it  necessary,  as  we  shall  find  St.  Paul  him- 
self did,  to  point  out  grave  and  perilous  errors  into  which  they 
had  fallen. 

It  has  never  been  doubted  that  Antinomianism  is  the  tend- 
ency which  is  denounced  throughout  this  Epistle.  Now  Anti- 
nomianism may  be  used  vaguely  to  mean  any  doctrine  which 
leads  to  the  neglect  of  good  works.  In  that  sense  St.  James  is 
of  course  fighting  with  it.  But  Antinomianism  in  its  strict  ety- 
mological meaning  as  the  opposition  to  outward  law,  St.  James 
is  not  combating;  he  is  much  rather  warning  his  readers 
against  the  forgetfulness  of  that  inner  government  which  God  is 
exercising  over  the  heart  and  tongue,  of  the  faith  which  is  not  in 
a  living  God,  and  therefore  produces  no  living  fruits.  St.  Peter 
is  engaged  with  a  different  phase  of  feeling  and  thought;  with 
the  disposition  to  make  the  liberty  of  the  Gospel  an  excuse  for 
disobedience  and  rebellion.  That  this  was  a  possible  result  of 
St.  Paul's  doctrine  misunderstood  and  perverted,  has  never  been 
denied.  It  might  however  result  from  influences  of  a  very  dif- 
ferent kind  ;  and  many  circumstances  in  the  condition  of  the 
Jews  in  the  provinces  might  give  it  with  them  especially  a  polit- 
ical direction.  St.  Peter  does  not  use  the  name  of  his  beloved 
brother  for  the  purpose  of  insinuating  that  he  had  stirred  up 
this  feeling;  he  claims  him  as  an  assertor  of  the  truth  which  he 
was  asserting,  that  the  long-suffering  of  God  was  not  an  excuse 
for  recklessness,  but  a  power  leading  to  salvation  and  holiness  ; 
though  he  intimates  that  an  opposite  inference  had  been  deduced 
from  his  writings  by  the  unstable  and  ignorant. 

The  use  in  this  Epistle  of  words  almost  the  same  with  those 
which  occur  in  the  Epistle  of  St.  Jude,  as  well  as  certain  pecu- 
liarities in  its  composition,^*  and   perhaps  the   reference  to  St. 

*  Among  these  may  be  mentioned  the  allusion  to  the  Transfiguration.  No 
doubt  it  is  a  characteristic  of  spurious  epistles,  to   introduce  broad  and  fre- 


240  LECTURE    II. 

Paul,  have  created  a  suspicion  of  its  genuineness,  which  is  very 
widely  diffused  among  German  critics,  especially  in  our  day.  I 
do  not  the  least  pretend  to  account  for  the  similarity  to  St.  Jude. 
And  there  are  many  passages  in  this  Epistle  which  I  feel  that  I 
do  not  understand.  But  I  cannot  think  that  if  any  book,  not  in 
the  Bible,  had  been  attributed  for  many  generations  to  a  certain 
author,  these  would  be  esteemed  sufficient  reasons  by  sober 
critics  for  denying  it  to  him.  I  do  not  feel  that  any  important 
issues  are  involved  in  the  decision.  If  the  evidence  were  strong 
I  should  of  course  acquiesce  in  it.  I  quite  admit  that  the  dif- 
ficulties which  have  led  students  to  resort  to  it,  deserve  careful 
examination.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  strong  internal 
signs  that  it  belongs  to  the  first  age,  if  not  that  it  belongs  to  St. 
Peter,  which  I  think  certain  prejudices  in  the  minds  of  modern 
critics  tempt  them  to  overlook. 

It  is  not,  as  I  said  when  speaking  of  St.  Jude,  at  all  in  accord- 
ance with  our  notions,  that  members  of  the  primitive  Church 
should  be  accused  of  crimes  as  great  as  those  which  brought 
destruction  upon  the  world  before  the  flood  or  upon  the  cities  of 
the  plain.  We  attach  to  the  words  "  apostolic  age,"  "  first  age," 
certain  impressions  of  purity  which  no  testimonies  or  arguments 
will  induce  us  to  lay  aside,  until  we  learn  to  adopt  the  uniform 
language  of  the  Apostles,  and  believe  that  they  are  writing,  not 
about  the  beginning  of  an  age,  but   about  the  end  of  one.     I 

quent  references  to  events  which  were  familiar  to  the  mind  of  the  reader,  so 
to  make  a  violent  claim  upon  his  faith,  which  a  simple  and  true  writer  has  no 
need  to  make.  No  doubt  the  canonical  epistles  are  remarkably  free  from 
allusions  to  the  events  of  our  Lord's  life  in  the  flesh  ;  though  a  belief  in  these 
events  must,  upon  any  hypothesis,  have  been  diffused  among  the  converts. 
But  I  apprehend  the  occurrence  of  one  such  allusion  in  the  writing  of  the 
only  Apostle  who  could  have  introduced  it  (I  am  not  now  speaking  of  St. 
John,  of  whom  I  am  to  treat  hereafter),  is  a  very  strange  and  unsatisfactory 
reason  for  discrediting  a  book  in  which  it  occurs.  It  would  have  been  utterly 
out  of  place  in  the  epistle  of  St.  James,  or  in  any  of  the  epistles  of  St.  Paul  : 
I  cannot  feel  that  it  is  out  of  place  in  the  letter  of  an  Apostle,  whose  great 
object  is  to  exhibit  the  glorified  humanity  of  Christ  to  the  minds  of  his  dis- 
ciples. 


THE    SECOND    EPISTLE    OF    ST.    PETER.  24I 

cannot  express  how  much  importance  I  feel  is  connected  with 
the  use  of  this  scriptural  nomenclature,  or  what  mischiefs  have 
arisen  from  the  substitution  of  another  of  a  directly  opposite 
kind.  It  has  been  absolutely  necessary,  for  instance,  to  take 
this  Epistle  of  St.  Peter  as  if  it  applied  to  a  time  immeasurably 
distant  from  his  own,  though  every  exhortation  which  he  uses 
must  seem  to  plain  men  utterly  unsuitable,  utterly  deceptive,  if 
it  does  not  refer  to  the  circumstances  of  the  people  for  whom  he 
was  writing,  to  fears  which  their  teacher  entertained  for  them. 

If  the  reader  once  adopts  the  conviction  that  St.  Peter  is 
writing  about  a  distant  future,  I  cannot  be  surprised  that  he 
finds  the  whole  Epistle  fragmentary  and  disjointed.  He  may 
then  easily  accept  the  hypothesis,  that  the  first  few  paragraphs 
concerning  Christian  virtues  and  graces  are  St.  Peter's,  and  that 
the  rest  of  the  document,  proceeding  from  some  other  source, 
has  been  accidentally,  and  by  mistake,  attached  to  them.  But 
if  he  can  overcome  his  disinclination  to  believe  that  there  was  a 
fear  among  the  Apostles  that  their  converts  should  sink  into  the 
very  worst  moral  state,  that  they  should  lose  all  hold  upon  truth 
and  righteousness — and  that  there  w-as  a  judgment  coming  upon 
the  world  of  that  day  which  would  be  more  tremendous  in  its 
principles  and  its  issues  than  the  one  wdiich  Noah  had  witnessed 
— I  think  he  will  discover  a  peculiar  fitness  in  the  opening  of 
the  Epistle  to  such  a  state  of  things.  I  do  not  hold  that  it  is 
necessary,  with  our  excellent  Hammond,  to  trace  Gnosticism  at 
every  turn  in  the  apostolical  writings,  or  to  suppose  that  there 
were  in  the  apostolical  period  the  elaborated  forms  of  Gnosti- 
cism which  the  next  age  brought  forth.  But  that  the  Antinomian 
tendency  of  that  time,  as  of  all  times,  arose  from  the  attempt  to 
separate  knowledge  from  obedience,  to  set  up  the  apprehension 
of  truths  against  the  submission  to  commands,  I  am  bound  to 
suppose.  And  I  cannot  conceive  any  more  apostolical  method 
of  treating  such  a  tendency  than  that  which  St.  Peter  has  re- 
sorted to.  "  You  boast  of  your  illumination,  your  knowledge  of 
the  divine  and  the  invisible.  But  that  knowledge  is  first  of  all 
the   acknowledgment,  the    iruyMDrytq,  and  inward  discernment  of 

16 


242 


LECTURE    II. 


a  ri 


■ighteous  person,  of  one  who  is  the  deliverer  from  sin."  The 
pw^rr  was  taken  to  be  something  in  itself  ;  it  stood  in  no  direct 
relation  to  faith  ;  in  still  less  direct  relation  to  moral  energy  or 
virtue  and  to  self-restraint.  But  faith  St.  Peter  says  will  not  sub- 
sist if  virtue  do  not  sustain  it  ;  virtue  demands  knowledge  ; 
knowledge  requires  self-government,  self-government  patience, 
patience  brotherly  affection,  brotherly  affection  love  in  its  high- 
est sense.  Each  grace  he  speaks  of  is  not  to  be  "  added  on  "  to 
the  last,  as  our  translators  perversely  teach,  but  to  be  brought  as 
a  fresh  supply  of  fuel  to  prevent  the  fire,  already  kindled,  from 
going  out.  The  etymology  of  i-iyofir^yriaa-z^  no  less  than  the 
use  of  it  elsewhere,  even  if  it  w^ere  not  joined  to  o-oony,-^  -aawj 
T.ariz'.nv^iy/jjy-z^^  will  surely  decide  this  to  be  the  sense  of  the 
Apostle. 

And  this  sense  goes  through  the  Epistle.  They  were  called 
to  glory  and  virtue.  Let  them  see  that  they  made  their  calling 
and  election  sure;  that  they  actually  inherited  and  possessed 
that  which  was  made  theirs.  So  that  supply  of  grace  which  was 
always  ready  for  them  would  be  effectual  for  its  purpose,  so  that 
entrance  into  the  eternal  kingdom  of  the  Lord  and  Saviour, 
which  He  promised  them,  would  be  a  real,  not  a  nominal  one, 
an  entrance  into  a  kingdom  of  Righteousness,  Peace,  Joy. 

To  this 'effort  the  Apostle  would  stir  them  as  long  as  he  dwelt 
in  this  tent  or  tabernacle.  It  was  not  to  be  a  fixed  tabernacle, 
like  that  which  he  had  proposed  to  build  on  the  Mount  for  Moses, 
Elias,  and  Jesus,  not  knowing  what  he  said.  The  voice  which 
had  dispersed  that  dream,  "  This  is  my  beloved  Son,"  was  still 
in  his  ears  ;  still  assuring  him  of  a  more  fixed  and  eternal  habita- 
tion, warning  him  that  the  stakes  of  the  visible  tent  would  soon 
be  taken  down.  That  voice  was  as  real  now  as  ii  had  been  then  ; 
the  glory  which  shone  about  them  at  that  moment  was  a  perma- 
nent one.  They  had  not  been  indulging,  as  many  thought,  in 
elaborate  myths,  well  concocted  legends,  when  they  had  spoken 
of  His  power  and  presence.  They  had  been  permitted  to  wit- 
ness a  momentary  manifestation  of  it,  that  they  might  call  upon 
their  disciples  to  believe  in  it  and  to   enter  into  it.     That  vision 


THE    SECOND    EPISTLE    OF    ST.    PETER.  243 

enabled  them  to  grasp  more  firmly  the  prophetic  word,  which 
spoke  of  this  power  and  presence.  To  that  word  those  whom 
St.  Peter  was  addressing  were  applying  themselves,  perhaps  with 
some  fear  and  restlessness,  each  of  them  seeking  some  partial 
and  private  solution  of  its  riddles.  Their  study  was  not  over- 
zealous  ;  they  did  well  to  work  in  that  mine.  But  let  them  re- 
member that  the  day  of  the  Lord  which  the  prophets  spoke  of 
was  to  arise  and  shine  fully  in  their  hearts.  Let  them  remem- 
ber that  holy  men  spoke  under  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and 
therefore  did  not  speak  out  their  own  narrow  thoughts  and  spec- 
ulations, but  truths  concerning  the  nature  of  God  and  the  well 
being  of  the  Universe. 

And  if  they  were  busy  with  true  prophets,  let  them  not 
forget  what  they  so  continually  spoke  of,  the  existence  of  false 
prophets  side  by  side  with  them.  Such  had  been  in  all  times, 
such  would  be  among  themselves. 

What  follows  is  a  very  clear  description  of  the  tendency  and 
character  of  these  false  teachers.  The  confusion  of  fleshly  in- 
dependence with  spiritual  freedom,  of  the  freedom  to  sin  with 
the  freedom  from  sin,  would  be  their  main  characteristic.  They 
would  deny  the  Lord  that  brought  them  ;  that  is  to  say,  they 
would  deny  that  they  had  been  redeemed  ;  that  He  was  their 
Redeemer.  Redemption  in  their  minds  would  bear  an  altogether 
different  force  from  the  true  one  ;  hence,  indulgence  was  what 
they  would  be  craving  for.  In  such  men  the  possession  of  spirit- 
ual powers  would  lead  their  fellows  and  themselves  into  deeper 
sensuality  ;  the  sin  of  Balaam  would  be  repeated  in  them  ;  for 
in  him  the  very  idea  of  the  false  prophet,  as  the  scripture  sets  it 
forth,  was  realized.  He  was  essentially  the  false  man,  traffic- 
ing  with  his  conscience,  using  the  divine  wisdom  and  the  divine 
power  to  serve  his  gain  or  his  lust.  The  recollection  of  Simon 
was  probably  present  to  St.  Peter's  mind.  If  we  may  at  all  trust 
the  later  traditions  respecting  him,  he  would  exactly  embody 
this  notion  of  the  Christian  Balaam.  If  we  may  look  upon  him, 
as  all  antiquity  encourages  us  to  do,  as  the  head  and  type  of  a 
class,  the  false  prophets  in  the  apostolic   age  may  have  been  as 


244  LECTURE    11. 

numerous  as  they  ever  can  have  been  in  the  times  of  Elijah  or 
Jeremiah.  These  St.  Peter  regards  as  at  once  produced  by,  and 
producing  the  Antinomian  temper  which  was  prevaihng  in  the 
Church  ;  themselves  the  signs  of  a  nearer  apostasy,  and  hurry- 
rying  forward  the  judgment  which  was  at  hand. 

Of  that  judgment  the  Apostle  proceeds  to  speak  in  the  third 
chapter.  His  words,  if  they  stood  alone,  and  we  knew  nothing 
of  what  had  been  said  by  other  apostles  and  evangelists,  would 
certainly  lead  us  to  suppose  that  the  last  days  were  approaching, 
and  that  the  scoffers  who  asked  where  was  the  promise  of  His 
coming,  would  be  as  much  men  of  that  day  as  the  false  prophets 
he  had  just  been  speaking  of.  The  Apostles  had  told  them  that 
His  coming  was  drawing  near  ;  the  mockers  would  say,  "Where 
are  the  signs  of  it  .-^  Where  is  the  promise  of  it?  Is  not  the 
whole  course  and  order  of  things  just  what  it  has  always  been? 
Since  the  first  fathers  of  the  old  world  fell  asleep,  has  there  been 
the  least  derangement  in  the  world's  monotony  ?  "  The  answer 
is  precisely  what  we  should  have  expected  from  the  previous 
passages.  There  is  a  reference  to  the  time  of  Noah  as  a  paral- 
lel to  that  which  is  approaching  ;  there  was  to  be  as  great  a 
shock  and  convulsion  in  the  order  of  the  world  then,  as  there 
had  been  at  the  time  of  the  Deluge. 

So  much  of  the  Apostle's  meaning  seems  to  me  clear ;  there 
are  parts  of  it  upon  which  I  wait  for  light.  I  do  not  suppose 
any  one  is  satisfied  with  our  translation  of  the  passage  re- 
specting the  dissolution  of  the  elements  ;  that  -^Or^daopirtp.ivoi 
■rzvpi  can  mean  "  reserved  tinto  fire  ;"  or  that  Toororj  oco^^  izd'^rMv 
luo!i.hor^  (treasured  up  to  fire)  (all  these  then  being  dissolved), 
can  be  equivalent  with,  "  Seeing  that  all  these  things  shaH be  d\s- 
solved  ;  "  or  that  dC  vjv  has  the  force  of,  "  in  which  ;  "  not,  "  for 
the    sake  of   which,''  or    "  in    consequence    of    which."  *     The 

*  Lachmann  has  adopted  TaKijo-erai  (shall  be  melted,  consumed,  wasted 
away),  in  the  place  of  TTj/cerat  (is  consumed,  etc.),  the  ordinary  reading,  and 
has  so  far  done  something  to  sustain  our  translation  of  the  12th  verse.  If  his 
reading /cai  Ttt  eTravYeA/aara  (and  the  promises)  is  received,  it  must  give  a  dif- 
ferent character  to  the  13th  verse  ;  though  I  confess  I  do  not  see  what  will  be 
its  precise  force  in  that  event. 


THE    SECOND    EPISTLE    OF    ST.    PETER.  245 

argument  surely  suffers  from  some  of  these  deviations.  What 
effect  it  would  have  upon  men  surrounded  by  motives  to  sensu- 
ality and  Antinomianism  to  hear  that  at  some  very  distant  time 
the  existing  framework  of  things'  would  be  dissolved,  I  cannot 
understand.  If  they  were  then  in  process  of  dissolution,  if  the 
eternal  day  was  emerging  out  of  the  mists  and  shadows  of  night, 
there  was  good  reason  for  fixing  their  minds  upon  that  in  which 
they  might  abide  forever,  for  withdrawing  them  from  that  which 
was  transitory  by  its  very  nature  and  quality.  This  meaning 
must,  I  think,  be  in  the  words,  whatever  be  the  correct  version 
of  them,  about  which  I  should  be  thankful  if  scholars  would 
give  a  careful  and  deliberate  judgment.  This  at  all  events  I 
must  claim,  that  the  words,  "  one  day  with  the  Lord  is  as  a 
thousand  years,  and  a  thousand  years  as  one  day,"  shall  be 
meditated  upon  in  silence  and  awe,  not  turned  into  an  excuse 
for  making  Scripture  as  vague  and  flexible  as  interpreters  may 
find  convenient.  I  can  conceive  no  more  beautiful  and  helpful 
passage  than  this  is,  if  we  use  it  to  bring  before  our  minds  that 
day  of  the  Lord  which  cannot  be  measured  by  the  rules  and  con- 
ditions of  time,  which  lies  out  of  them  and  beyond  them,  and  yet 
which  is  at  certain  crises  presented  in  its  full  brightness  and 
glory  to  eyes  that  are  waiting  for  it,  and  prepared  to  welcome 
it ;  any  which  more  entirely  harmonizes  with  what  is  said  of  the 
day  of  the  Lord  by  the  old  prophets,  and  by  the  other  Apostles  : 
any  which  can  better  prepare  us  for  understanding  the  use  of  the 
same  word  by  the  brother  to  whom  St.  Peter  alludes  as  having 
uttered  some  things  hard  to  be  understood.  But  I  am  sure  that 
if  we  merely  use  the  thousand  years  as  a  pretext  for  postponing 
indefinitely  the  judgment  which  the  Christians  of  the  first  century 
were  taught  to  expect  in  their  own  time,  we  shall  make  the 
Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  even  more  unintelligible  than  the  Apostle 
of  the  circumcision. 

On  the  whole  then,  I  think  we  may  affirm  that  the  two  Epistles 
of  St.  Peter  are  emphatically  Epistles  concerning  the  Son  of 
God,  and  the  Son  of  Man  ;  Epistles  which  most  remarkably 
bring  Christ  personally  before  us  in  these  Churches  as  the  living 


246  LECTURE    II. 

bond  of  a  society  ;  as  the  object  of  Faith  ;  as  the  deliverer  from 
present  evil  ;  as  the  refuge  in  a  rapidly  approaching  judgment, 
which  would  try  men  of  every  class  of  what  sort  they  were.  Just 
the  characteristics  which  presented  themselves  to  us  in  St.  Mark's 
Gospel  are  also  here.  Christ  is  not  showing  men  of  a  Father, 
but  the  Father  is  leading  them  to  Christ.  He  is  the  actual 
centre  which  they  need  in  their  dispersion  to  make  them  a 
people  ;  He  is  the  righteous  Lord  whom  each  of  them  needs  to 
keep  him  from  falling  back  into  the  abyss  of  corruption  out  of 
which  he  has  been  rescued. 


ST.  PAUL. 

I  PROPOSE  to  take  St.  Paul's  Epistles  in  the  order  in  which  I 
find  them  in  the  Canon.  But  there  is  one  passage  which  is  so 
important  for  its  own  sake,  so  important  as  connecting  the  nar- 
rative in  St.  Luke  with  the  internal  life  of  the  Apostle,  so  spe- 
cially important  because  it  occurs  in  that  Epistle  which  brings  out 
the  opposition  between  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  at  Antioch — the 
one  which  modern  Paulines  therefore  delight  to  dwell  upon  above 
all,others — that  I  must  make  it  an  introduction  to  all  my  subse- 
quent remarks. 

It  is  this  (Gal.  i.  15,  16)  :  "  But  when  it  pleased  God,  who  had 
chosen  me  from  my  mother's  womb,  and  called  me  by  His  grace 
to  reveal  His  Son  in  me,  that  I  might  preach  him  among  the 
Gentiles,  immediately  I  conferred  not  with  flesh  and  blood." 
This  is,  in  the  strictest  sense,  St.  Paul's  account  of  his  own  con- 
version. It  will  not  be  supposed  that  he  made  light  of  the 
vision  which  he  saw  on  the  way  to  Damascus  ;  he  records  that 
vision  again  and  again  with  its  different  details  ;  he  presumes 
the  Galatians  to  be  acquainted  with  it ;  no  fact  less  signal  could 
bridge  over  the  chasm  between  the  time  past  in  which  he  perse- 
cuted the  Church  of  God  and  wasted  it,  and  that  in  which  he 
preached  the  faith  he  once  destroyed.  But  we  are  not  satisfied 
with  the  outward  fact ;  we  want  to  know  what  it  signifies,  what 


ST.    PAUL.  247 

processes  within  corresponded  to  it,  what  discovery  was  actually 
made  to  the  mind  of  the  Apostle  which  a  light  in  the  outward 
heaven  could  not  make.  Here  he  tells  us  ;  "It  pleased  God  to 
reveal  His  Son  in  me  ;  "  He  discovered  to  me  that  there  was 
One  against  whose  admonitions  and  invitations  I  had  been  kick- 
ing, One  who  was  my  Lord,  and  yet  whom  I  had  been  persecu- 
ting. 7'his  revelation  it  was  which  first  confounded  and  blinded 
me,  then  illuminated  all  the  dark  passages  of  my  previous  life. 
From  this  Son  of  God  had  proceeded  every  right  desire  and  true 
thought  that  had  ever  been  in  me  ;  from  myself  resisting  and 
disowning  Him,  all  that  had  been  evil  and  false.  But  was  this 
Son  of  God  only  in  vie  ?  Was  He  revealed  to  me  only  that  I 
might  know  my  own  blessing  and  my  own  evil.?  Was  He  re- 
vealed to  me  because  I  was  different  from  the  rest  of  my  Jewish 
brethren  ?  Was  He  revealed  to  me  only  because  I  was  one  of 
them  ?  No  ;  but  He  was  revealed  in  me  for  this  end,  that  I 
might  preach  Him  among  the  Gentiles.  I  was  made  to  under- 
stand that  which  was  true  of  me  as  a  man  ;  so  I  was  fitted  to  be 
a  missionary  to  men.  Hence  too  I  was  enabled  to  fulfil  the 
office  and  calling  of  a  Jew  ;  I  was  chosen  from  my  mother's 
womb  to  assist  in  carrying  out  the  covenant  to  Abraham  :  "  In 
thy  seed  shall  all  the  families  of  the  earth  be  blessed  !  "  There- 
fore I  could  not  confer  with  flesh  and  blood  ;  I  could  not  for  the 
present  avail  myself  of  outward  instruction  ;  I  went  into  Arabia 
to  be  taught  thoroughly  in  silence  and  retirement  the  meaning 
of  this  wonderful  communication  ;  how  it  must  affect  myself  and 
the  world  ;  to  wait  for  the  answer  to  my  question  :  "  Lord,  what 
wouldst  thou  have  me  to  do  ?  " 

I  conceive  then  that  we  have  the  highest  warrant  for  believing 
that  St.  Paul's  special  work  was  to  carry  this  message  to  the  na- 
tions, to  tell  men  ihat  the  Son  of  God  was  in  them,  that  He  was 
the  real  head  and  root  of  their  humanity,  that  apart  from  Him 
they  had  no  life,  or  righteousness,  or  unity  at  all ;  to  bring  out 
this  fact  in  relation  to  the  experiences  of  their  own  minds,  to  the 
facts  of  history,  to  the  calling  of  the  chosen  people,  to  their  law, 
to  the  order  of  Society,  to  the  past,  present,  future   condition  of 


248  LECTURE    II. 

the  world.  He  was  to  show  how  our  Lord's  Incarnation,  His 
death,  resurrection,  ascension,  bore  upon  and  explained  His  rela- 
tion to  human  beings,  expounded  the  riddle  of  their  own  exist- 
ence, confuted  the  innumerable  evidences  which  outward  and 
inward  facts  seemed  to  oppose  to  a  belief  in  His  actual  fellow- 
ship with  them  and  dominion  over  them. 

Such,  I  say,  would  be  the  rough  notion  one  would  form  of  the 
object  of  St.  Paul's  life  from  this  memorable  passage.  By  as- 
suming it  as  the  basis  of  our  inquiry  we  may  perhaps  be  able  to 
trace  the  distinct  objects  of  his  different  epistles  more  clearly, 
without  departing  from  the  most  admitted  maxims  respecting 
them,  provided  those  maxims  are  not  directly  inconsistent  with 
the  statements  of  the  Apostle  himself. 


I. 

THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE  ROMANS. 


Thus,  for  instance,  we  shall  not  be  obliged  to  doubt  that  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans  treats  on  the  doctrine  of  justification  by 
faith,  as  all  Protestant  writers  would  eagerly  affirm.  Still  less 
shall  we  be  disposed  to  deny  that  it  treats  very  accurately  and 
fully  on  the  subject  of  Law  and  the  relation  of  the  Law  to  the 
Gospel.  We  shall  not  pass  over  those  passages  in  the  Epistle 
which  assert  the  rights  of  the  Gentiles,  or  those  which  speak  of 
Israel  after  the  flesh,  or  of  Israel  according  to  promise.  We 
shall  neither  wish  to  regard  the  letter  less  as  explaining  the  per- 
sonal life  and  conflicts  of  St.  Paul,  than  a  reader  of  the  7th  chap- 
ter would  conclude  that  it  did,  nor  less,  as  explaining  the  condi- 
tion of  the  human  race  considered  in  its  two  heads,  than  would 
be  inferred  from  the  5th  chapter.  Whatever  aspect  the  Epistle 
has  presented  to  any  earnest  and  devout  student  of  it,  even  to 
any,  the  most  superficial,  reader  of  it,  ought  to  receive,  and  I  be- 


THE    EPISTLE    TO    THE    ROMANS.  249 

lieve  would  receive,  the  fullest  recognition  from  one  who  under- 
stood that  Christ  had  been  revealed  in  the  Apostle,  in  order  that 
he  might  preach  Him.  But  the  different  doctrinal  and  practical 
statements  which  are  addressed  to  this  Church  when  seen  in  the 
light  of  that  truth,  have  no  Tonger  a  fragmentary  character;  they 
are  no  longer  a  collection  of  opinions,  or  counsels,  or  arguments 
on  different  subjects,  strung  accidentally  together  ;  nor,  again, 
do  they  constitute  a  mere  logical  formal  treatise,  in  which  ex- 
pressions of  sympathy  and  affection  are  inappropriate,  or,  at 
least,  with  which  they  have  no  natural  connection.  The  whole 
will  form  a  Letter,  in  which  the  sequence  of  thoughts  is  clear 
and  orderly,  in  which  no  part  could  be  omitted  without  injuring 
the  sense  of  the  other  part,  in  which  all  flows  forth  freely  from  a 
rich,  full,  inspired  mind,  and  is  in  the  most  perfect  adaptation  to 
the  wants  and  circumstances  of  the  particular  persons  to  whom 
it  is  addressed. 

Those  wdio  make  Justification  by  faith  the  one  subject  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  can  produce  some  evidence  in  favor  of 
their  hypothesis  from  every  chapter.  But  the  chapters,  from  the 
3d  to  the  end  of  the  9th,  are  the  great  supports  of  their  argu- 
ment. They  are  very  much  disposed  to  consider  the  first  two 
chapters  as  prologue,  those  after  the  9th,  or,  at  all  events,  after 
the  nth,  as  epilogue.  By  this  arrangement  they  are  able,  they 
think,  to  trace  the  argument  in  those  which  form  the  substance 
of  the  letter  with  much  clearness.  In  the  3d  it  is  shown  how  all 
are  guilty  before  God  ;  in  the  4th,  that  Abraham  and  David 
found  forgiveness  of  their  sins,  and  had  a  righteousness  imputed 
to  the^i  in  virtue  of  their  faith,  under  the  old  dispensation  ;  in 
the  5th,  how  this  forgiveness  and  imputation  become  available 
for  us  through  the  obedience  of  Jesus  Christ ;  in  the  6th,  that 
the  doctrine  of  faith  without  works  is  clear  from  any  evil  moral 
consequences;  in  the  7th,  how  it  delivers  the  conscience  from  a 
terrible  bondage  and  anguish  ;  in  the  8th,  how  it  is  connected 
with  all  anticipations  and  hopes  of  future  deliverance  and  glory  ; 
in  the  9th,  how  it  is  grounded  on  a  divine  election,  not  after  the 
flesh,  but  the  spirit. 


250  LECTURE    ir. 

We  have  here  what  seems  a  very  plausible  view  of  this  part  of 
the  Epistle  ;  but  when  it  is  examined  from  different  points  of 
view  it  gives  rise  to  many  controversies.  Does  St.  Paul,  it  is 
asked,  actually  mean  to  say  that  all  men  whatsoever  are  sinners 
in  the  same  sense  ?  that  the  words,  "  there  is  none  righteous,  no, 
not  one :  their  mouth  is  an  open  sepulchre  ;  they  have  the 
tongues  of  asps  ;  there  is  no  fear  of  God  before  their  eyes  ; " 
apply  to  Samuel,  Hezekiah,  Isaiah  ?  But,  if  not,  where  do  you 
stop  ?  There  is  no  limitation  of  the  language  ;  there  are  no 
phrases  to  intimate  that  the  description  applies  to  the  unfaithful 
and  not  to  the  faithful  ;  nay,  the  whole  argument  would  be  de- 
stroyed by  such  a  supposition. 

What  faith,  it  is  asked  again,  is  this  which  wrought  such  bless- 
ings for  David  and  Abraham  ?  What  was  the  kind  and  the  de- 
gree of  it?  Did  it  point  to  some  event  not  yet  accomplished? 
Was  it  in  the  future  or  the  present  ?  If  it  was  in  the  future,  how 
does  it  resemble  the  faith  by  which  people  are  said  to  be  justified 
after  the  coming  of  Christ  ?  If  it  was  in  something  actual  and 
present,  what  was  there  which  was  present  to  them  and  is  pres- 
ent to  their  successors  ? 

It  is  further  asked  whether  the  idea  of  imputation  of  right- 
eousness does  not  interfere  with  the  express  and  solemn  asser- 
tion of  the  Apostle,  that  the  judgments  of  God  are  according  to 
truth,  and  with  his  denunciation  of  the  Jews  for  thinking  that 
righteousness  can  be  a  mere  formal  thing  ?  Another  question 
takes  this  form  :  Would  it  not  seem  from  the  5th  chapter,  that 
the  justification  by  Christ  was  correspondent  to  the  fall  in 
Adam,  nay,  that  it  was  in  some  respects  more  complete  than 
that  ?  And  how  can  this  be,  if  the  justification  is  only  for  those 
who  believe  in  it,  and  they  are  so  few  ?  Then  arises  a  moral 
difficulty.  "  No  doubt  St.  Paul  says  that  we  are  not  to  continue 
in  sin  that  grace  may  abound  ;  but  supposing  that  a  man  is  not 
tempted  to  sin  by  the  possession  of  grace,  is  he  not  forced  to  sin 
by  the  absence  of  it,  and  is  rot  one  consequence  as  terrible  as 
the  other  ? "  Again  ;  "  If  the  faith  of  a  man  does  not  attract 
the  grace,  which  would  be  a  Romish  doctrine,  in  what  sense  can 


THE    EPISTLE    TO    THE    ROMANS.  25 1 

faith   be   said  to  be   really  the  justifying  power  or   principle  ?  " 
Once  more;  "To  whom    (I   need   scarcely  say   how   often  this 
question  is  repeated)  does  the  description  in  the  7th  chapter  ap- 
ply?    To  St.  Paul  unconverted  or  converted?     To   a  man   con- 
scious of  an  evil  nature,  without  being  conscious   of  a  deliverer, 
or  to  a  man  conscious  of  both  and  believing  the  latter  to  be  the 
stronger  ?     To  whom  do  all  the   assurances  of  the   8th  chapter 
apply  ?     Is  it  not  to  those,  whom  according  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
9th,  God  is  willing  to  save  ?  Are  there  not  others,  vessels  of  wrath, 
whom,  according  to  the  same  chapter,  He  is  willing  to  destroy  ?  " 
It  seems  to  me  that  all  these  difficulties  may  be  traced  to  one 
source.     It  is  assumed  that  St.  Paul's  theology  starts  from   the 
idea  of  human  depravity,  that  he   looks  upon  Christ   and  all  the 
acts   of   Christ   (I   am  afraid   of   using  profane   language,  but  I 
know  not  how  to   avoid  it),  as   mere  provisions   against  sin.     It 
cannot  be  doubted  that  this  notion  proceeds  in  a  great   measure 
from  an  impression  that  St.  Paul's  conversion  is   the  key  to   his 
life  and  his  doctrine.     It  will  not  be   supposed  that  I  can   have 
any  quarrel  with  that   opinion  ;  I   earnestly  maintain  the  sound- 
ness of  it.     But  I  must  interpret  his  conversion  as  he  interprets 
it  ;  then  I  shall  have  no  motive  to   disturb  the  natural   order  of 
his  Epistle,  or  to  represent  the  opening  of  it,  wherein  he  seems 
to  announce  the  innermost  purpose  of  the  whole  as  a  mere  porch 
or  vestibule. 

CHAPTER  I. 

St.  Paul  begins  his  letter  with  saying  that  he  is  entrusted  with 
a  gospel  of  God  concerning  His  Son  Jesus  Christ,  who  was  made 
of  the  seed  of  David  according  to  the  flesh,  and  declared  to  be 
the  Son  of  God  with  power,  by  the  resurrection  of  His  dead 
limbs  or  members.  He  says  that  he  is  not  ashamed  of  this  Gos- 
pel of  God  ;  because  it  is  the  power  of  God  to  salvation  to  every 
one  that  believeth.  If  he  is  asked  how  or  why  it  is  the  power  of 
God  unto  salvation,  he  makes  answer,  because  in  it  the  Right- 
eousness of  God  is  revealed  unto  faith,  according  as  it  is  written 


252  LECTURE    II. 

in  Habbakuk,  the  righteous  man  shall  live  by  faith.  As  this 
Gospel  is  the  revelation  of  the  righteousness  of  God  to  every 
one  that  believeth,  so  also  he  says,  it  is  the  revelation  of  the 
wrath  of  God  to  those  who  hold  down  the  truth  in  injustice  or 
wrong.  He  explains  what  he  means  by  this  singular  phrase. 
God,  he  says,  has  manifested  Himself  to  men,  not  to  one  man 
here  or  there,  but  to  all.  His  power  and  Godhead  are  seen 
through  His  works.  That  which  is  capable  of  being  known  of 
God  He  has  declared  to  them. 

St.  Paul  leaves  us  in  no  doubt  what  kind  of  manifestation  this 
is.  It  is  a  manifestation  of  7'ighteousness — of  God  as  a  righteous 
Being.  He  goes  on  to  trace  up  the  unrighteousness  of  men  in 
all  its  different  forms  to  their  not  liking  or  thinking  it  good,  to 
retain  God  in  their  knowledge.  In  a  number  of  ways  they  con- 
fess His  righteousness  ;  they  confess  that  He  is  passing  judg- 
ment upon  evil.  And  yet  they  do  homage  to  the  creature  more 
than  to  the  Creator ;  they  make  Him  in  the  likeness  of  birds  and 
beasts  and  creeping  things.  And  this  idolatry,  this  revolt  from 
tne  invisible  God,  brings  after  it  a  continually  increasing  train  of 
moral  corruptions  and  evils. 


CHAPTER  II. 

So  far  his  countrymen  might  be  ready  to  agree  with  him.  They 
could  condemn  the  idolatrous  world,  and  boast  of  their  own  priv- 
ileges. But  how  dare  they  do  this  ?  Had  they  the  least  right 
to  say  that  the  mere  possession  of  a  law  and  a  covenant  had 
exempted  the  members  of  their  nation  from  the  sins  of  other  na- 
tions ?  Had  not  Jews  been  guilty  of  every  crime  which  could 
be  imputed  to  heathens  .'*  Had  it  not  been  even  said  that  the 
Name  of  God  was  blasphemed  through  them  among  the  heathen  ? 
How  stood  the  case  then  ?  God  had  revealed  Himself  to  the 
Gentile,  God  had  rexealed  Himself  in  a  more  perfect  manner  to 
the  Jew.  And  Jews  or  Gentiles,  v.'ho,  by  patient  continuance  in 
well-doing,  sought  for  glory  and  honor   and  eternal  life — that  is 


THE    EPISTLE    TO    THE    ROMANS.  253 

to  say,  as  all  the  previous  passage  shows — Jews  or  Gentiles  who 
really  availed  themselves  of  God's  revelation  of  Himself,  and 
chose  to  retain  Him  in  their  knowledge,  would  obtain  that  v/hich 
they  sought ;  while  Jews  and  Gentiles  who  were  contentious,  and 
obeyed  not  the  truth,  but  obeyed  u*nrighteousness,  would  find 
tribulation  and  wrath.  How  could  sucii  an  evil  come  upon  a 
member  of  the  favored  chosen  nation  ?  Because  the  whole  cove- 
nant is  with  the  Jew  inwardly ;  because  circumcision  is  not  that 
which  is  outward  in  the  flesh,  but  means  the  separation  of  the 
inner  man  to  God,  the  cutting  him  off  from  that  which  is  fleshly 
and  outward. 

CHAPTER,  in. 

Accordingly  he  goes  on  in  the  3d  chapter  to  ask  what  gain 
has  the  Jew,  or  what  profit  is  there  in  circumcision  ?  And  he 
answers,  "  Much  every  way.  Chiefly  because  to  them  were  com- 
mitted the  oracles  of  God."  God  had  revealed  to  them  His  own 
righteousness  and  His  own  relation  to  them.  And  what  though 
some  did  not  believe,  should  their  unbelief  make  the  faith  of 
God  of  none  effect .?  No,  let  Him  be  true,  though  every  man 
was  a  liar.  But  this  did  not  prove  that  the  Jew,  as  Jew,  was 
better  than  the  Gentile  as  Gentile.  Simply  in  themselves,  apart 
from  God,  it  showed  them  to  be  all  alike  under  sin. 

Now  I  submit,  that  if  we  follow  the  Apostle  in  these  state- 
ments, the  character  of  the  rest  of  the  Epistle  will  be  determined 
by  them. 

The  passage  in  the  3d  chapter,  which  is  quoted  from  the 
Psalm,  need  not  be  strained  from  the  signification  which  it  evi- 
dently had  in  the  mind  of  the  original  writer  as  the  condemna- 
tion of  a  particularly  godless  age.  Taken  in  that  sense,  it  will 
quite  accomplish  the  purpose  for  which  the  Apostle  introduces 
it.  Those  things  which  the  Law  saith  it  saith  to  them  who  are 
under  the  Law.  How  could  such  an  indictment  as  this  be  pre- 
ferred against  men  who  had  the  privilege  of  being  Jews,  if  that 
which   was   peculiar  to  them    as    Jews,  itself  constituted  them 


254  LECTURE    II. 

righteous  ?  That,  he  goes  on  to  show,  can  never  be  the  effect  of 
Law.  B}'  Law  comes  the  knowledge  of  sin.  It  makes  a  man 
aware  of  that  in  him  which  is  at  war  with  a  standard  wherewith 
he  confesses  that  he  ought  to  be  in  conformity.  Such  a  state- 
ment of  the  effect  and  object  of  Law  evidently  presumes  some- 
thing antecedent  to  it.  The  Law  does  not  discover  evil  in  a 
man,  except  as  it  discovers  God  to  him,  and  God  as  related  to 
himself.  It  proclaims  to  him  the  dreadful  fact  of  an  inclination 
to  be  separated  from  One  intimately  and  closely  connected  with 
him,  from  One  whom  he  cannot  cast  off.  And  St.  Paul  insists, 
with  the  strictest  consistency,  that  He  of  whom  the  Law  thus 
testifies,  is  a  righteous  Being,  that  the  sense  of  sin  would  mean 
nothing  if  He  were  not.  I'he  notion  that  the  Law  reveals  to  a 
man  a  Being  of  infinite  power  who  has  made  a  decree  against 
him  for  which  he  will  exact  the  utmost  penalty,  does  not  enter 
into  St.  Paul's  mind,  is  not  hinted  at  in  a  single  sentence.  What 
he  sa3's  is,  that  a  Being  who  is  all  right  and  true,  makes  the  man 
know  that  there  is  that  in  him  which  is  adverse  to  Right  and 
Truth, — awakens  in  him  the  sense,  not  of  punishment,  but  of 
sin.  Hence  the  conclusion  is  evident :  whether  this  sense  has 
been  awakened  by  positive  law  or  by  any  other  niethod,  the  re- 
sult is  the  same.  Jew  and  Gentile  stand  alike  guilty  before 
God  ;  the  condemnation  belongs,  not  to  the  circumstances  in 
which  they  differ,  but  to  that  in  which  they  are  alike.  The  world 
is  guilty  before  God. 

And  now  comes  in  the  Justification.  The  sin  has  consisted  in 
the  man  not  liking  to  retain  the  invisible  and  righteous  God  in 
his  knowledge  ;  God  has  made  him  qonscious  of  that  sin  ;  the 
deliverance  from  it,  the  restoration  of  man  to  a  right  state,  must 
be  the  justification.  How  is  it  effected  ?  St.  Paul  declares  that 
God  has  manifested  the  Righteousness  of  which  the  law  testified, 
but  which  the  law  could  not  produce,  in  the  Person  of  Jesus 
Christ.  He  says  that  His  Ri-hteousness  is  manifested  /;/  the 
forgiveness  of  sins.  He  says  that  this  revelation  is  made  to 
Faith.  It  is  not  the  eye  which  recognizes  the  righteousness  of 
God  in  Christ.     It  is  not  the  outward  man  which  asks  to  be  for- 


THE    EPISTLE    TO    THE    ROMANS.,  255 

given.  It  is  that  within  which  is  conscious  of  estrangement, 
which  lo'igsfor  reconciliation.  To  that  God  addresses  himself, 
to  that  He  reveals  the  reconciliation  and  His  righteousness  in 
the  reconciliation.  The  man  believes,  becomes  reconciled,  be- 
comes righteous.  But  he  has  no  plea  for  boasting,  he  has  not 
made  himself  righteous,  he  has  not  obtained  any  righteousness 
of  his  own.  He  has  believed  in  God's  righteousness,  he  has  be- 
lieved in  that  righteousness,  as  seeking  to  make  him  righteous. 
God  is  just  and  the  justiiier.  All  the  man's  justice,  all  his  justi- 
fication arises  from  his  acknowledgment  of  God.  But  if  there  is 
not  a  different  God  for  Jews  and  Gentiles,  the  Gentile  has  as 
much  right  to  believe  in  Him,  is  as  much  bound  to  believe  in 
Him,  as  the  Jew,  The  revelation  in  Christ  must  be  the  justifica- 
tion of  both  or  of  neither. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

But  the  thought  naturally  occurs,  did  Abraham's  Circumcision 
do  him  no  good  ?  or  was  not  Abraham  in  himself  different  from 
another  man?  Hear  the  Scripture.  God  reveals  Himself  to 
the  uncircumcised  Abraham  ;  he  believes  ;  his  faith  is  counted 
to  him  for  righteousness.  He  becomes  an  actual  inheritor  and 
enjoyer  of  that  which  is  not  his  own,  of  that  which  is  in  another. 
His  circumcision  is  a  seal  of  this  righteousness  which  he  had  be- 
ing yet  uncircumcised.  His  descendants  had  as  much  right  <"0 
believe  in  the  righteous  God  as  he  had.  _  Here  was  a  perpetual 
sign  and  witness  of  their  right.  But  the  nature  of  the  sign 
showed  that  it  was  a  right  to  believe^  a  sj)i7'itiial  privilege  which 
the  descendant  of  Abraham  possessed,  not  a  right  to  think  that 
he  had  something  of  his  own  which  he  took  by  descent,  2,  ficshly 
privilege. 

•  Abraham  acquired  a  righteousiiess  which  was  not  in  himself, 
by  believing  in  a  Righteous  God.  He  acquired  a  power  which 
was  not  in  himself  by  believing  in  God's  power  and  God's  prom- 
ise.    And  so  he  became  the  father  of  many  nations ;  the  father 


256  LECTURE    IJ. 

of  the  Faithful,  circumcised  or  uncircumcised,  all  having  a  right 
to  believe  in  One  who  has  revealed  Himself  as  their  Justifier. 
But  how  has  God  revealed  Himself  as  the  Justifier  of  Gentiles 
and  Jews  ?  By  raising  Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead.  By  deliver- 
ing One  out  of  that  which  was  the  universal  witness  and  curse  of 
the  universal  sin.  By  announcing  Himself  as  the  deliverer  of 
mail  from  death  and  sin. 


CHAPTER   V. 

Do  you  ask  how  the  deliverance  of  Jesus  Christ  from  death 
was  the  deliverance  of  Man  from  death  and  the  assurance  that 
sin  was  vanquished  for  him  ?  /  could  only  answer  by  saying, 
"  Christ  w^as  revealed  in  St.  Paul  that  he  might  preach  Him 
among  the  Gentiles."  St.  Paul  found  that  Christ  was  the  right- 
eous ground  of  his  own  being,  that  he  might  proclaim  Him  as 
the  righteous  ground  of  Humanity.  But  if  you  wdsh  for  a  fur- 
ther answer  to  the  question,  St.  Paul  hiniself  will  give  it. 

The  memorable  5th  chapter  of  the  Epistle  begins  first  with 
declaring  that  having  been  justified,  not  by  any  thing  that  we 
have  done,  not  by  any  thing  in  ourselves,  not  by  any  thing  that 
separates  us  from  our  brethren,  we  have  peace  with  God  through 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  we  have  access  to  a  grace  in  which 
we  can  stand,  that  we  can  rejoice  in  the  hope  of  the  glory  of 
God,  that  we  can  welcome  tribulations  as  means  of  cultivating 
patience,  experience,  hope  ;  that  the  supporter  of  hope,  that 
which  makes  it  not  ashamed,  is  the  love  of  God  shed  abroad  in 
the  heart.  For  that  love  of  God  has  been  manifested  in  Christ 
dying  not  for  the  good  or  the  just,  but  for  the  ungodly.  Its 
strength  in  the  past  affords  the  most  certain  pledge  of  its  strength 
for  the  future.  If  we  have  been  justified  by  His  death,  w^e  shall 
be  saved  by  His  life.  Such  statements  might  be  used, — they 
have  often  been  used,— as  a  plea  for  the  believer,  or  the  man 
who  thinks  he  is  a  believer,  to  exalt  himself  above  other  men,  to 
say,  "  I  have  this  peace,  this  hope,  this   experience,  this  love,  to 


THE    EPISTLE    TO    THE    ROMANS.  25/ 

which  you  are  a  stranger."  St.  Paul  goes  on  to  cut  awa}'  the 
ground  of  this  boasting,  and  at  the  same  time  to  show  what  a 
ground  there  is  of  confidence  and  hope  for  those  who  will  be- 
lieve in  God  and  not  in  their  own  belief.  "  As  by  the  offence  of 
one,  he  says,  judgment  came  upon  all  men  to  condemnation, 
even  so  by  the  righteousness  of  one,  the  free  gift  came  upon  all 
men  unto  justification."  The  translation  is  careless  ;  there  are 
unnecessary  and  inconvenient  interpolations  in  it ;  but  it  pre- 
serves the  assertion  of  the  great  fact,  that  the  justification  is  co- 
extensive with  the  condemnation  ;  that  if  all  shared  in  one,  all 
share  in  the  other.  The  translators  trembled  at  their  ^own  ad- 
mission. In  the  next  sentence  they  evaded  it  by  a  sad  tamper- 
ing with  the  sense  of  the  original  ;  a  tampering  of  which  Luther 
also  cannot  be  acquitted.  "  For  as  by  one  man's  disobedience 
the  many  were  constituted  sinners,  so,  by  the  obedience  of  one,  the 
many  shall  be  constituted  righteous."  If  only  a  certain  portion 
of  the  human  race  had  partaken  of  the  sin  of  Adam,  only  a  cer- 
tain portion  had  partaken  of  the  justification  of  Christ.  But  St. 
Paul  affirms  ^// to  have  been  involved  in  one,  all  to  be  included 
in  the  other.  All  the  members  of  the  race  of  which  Adam  was 
the  head  were  proved  by  Adam's  sin  to  have  an  inclination  to 
separate  themselves  from  God,  and  to  have  in  themselves  no 
righteousness  at  all  ;  all  the  members  of  the  race  of  which  Christ 
is  the  head,  are  proved  and  declared  to  have  a  righteousness  in 
Him,  a  righteousness  which  is  not  their  own,  a  righteousness 
which  they  possess  only  by  faith.  If  we  adhere  to  the  letter  of 
the  Epistle  there  is  no  going  back  from  this  statement;  we  may 
explain  it  away  as  we  like  ;  but  there  it  is,  set  forth  in  plain  un- 
enigmatical  words.  I  should  feel  as  much  difficulty  as  any  one 
has  felt  in  believing  these  words — I  should  see  the  absolute  ne- 
cessity of  explaining  them  away  by  fair  means  or  foul, — if  I 
looked  upon  Christ's  death  and  resurrection  as  merely  events 
taking  place  at  a  certain  late  period  in  the  world's  history,  de- 
signed to  remedy  certain  evils  which  had  occurred  in  an  earlier 
period  of  it.  But  since  I  look  upon  them  as  revelations  of  the 
Son  of  God  in  whom  all  things  had  stood  from  the  first,  in  whom 

17 


258  LECTURE    II. 

God  had  looked  upon  His  creature  Man  from  the  first,  I  do  not 
want  to  get-rid  of  them,  I  give  thanks  for  them  as  the  most 
wonderful  and  blessed  exposition  of  God's  order  in  the  universe, 
of  man's  disorder  and  transgression,  of  the  method  by  which  one 
has  been  used  for  the  removal  and  cure  of  the  other. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Part  of  St.  Paul's  statement  might  seem  to  imply  that  the 
grace  of  Christ  was  only  co-extensive  with  the  fall  in  Adam.  He 
is  careful  to  guard  against  this  inference.  "  Not  as  the  offence," 
he  says,  "  ?0  is  also  the  free  gift."  It  was  not  one  act  of  obedi- 
ence matched  against  one  act  of  disobedience  ;  but  against  all 
the  accumulated  disobediences  of  human  creatures  from  the  cre- 
ation day.  Where  sin  abounded,  grace  did  much  more  abound. 
Such  a  view  of  forgiveness,  profound,  expanding,  infinite,  sur- 
mounting all  offences,  going  beneath  all,  of  course  seems  at  first 
a  warrant  for  presumptuous  sin.  And  surely  if  justification  meant 
the  removal  of  punishment — the  deliverance  of  a  man  from  the 
fear  of  the  consequences  of  his  transgression, — this  is  a  very 
plausible,  perhaps  a  very  reasonable  conclusion.  The  Apostle's 
answer  to  it  introduces  us  to  that  which  is  at  once  the  most 
practical  and  the  most  deeply  metaphysical  part  of  his  letter. 
"  What !  live  in  sin,"  he  says,  "  because  we  are  delivered  from 
sin  1  Live  in  that  to  which  it  is  our  one  great  privilege  to  be 
dead  ?  For  do  you  not  know  that  as  many  of  us  as  have  been 
baptized  into  Jesus  Christ,  have  been  baptized  into  His  death .? 
So  then  we  have  been  buried  with  him  through  baptism  unto 
death,  that  as  Christ  was  raised  from  the  dead  by  the  glory  of 
the  Father,  so  we  also  should  walk  in  newness  of  life."  What 
can  be  so  practical,  so  entirely  accordant  with  the  experience  of 
every  human  being  in  every  latitude,  in  every  religion,  as  that 
there  are  two  powers  struggling  for  him,  one  dragging  him  down 
into  himself  and  below  himself,  one  raising  him  out  of  himself 
and  above  himself  ?     This  conviction  is  the  key  to  all   Mytholo- 


THE    EPISTLE    TO    THE    ROMANS.  259 

gies,  to  all  Philosophies,  that  which  binds  them  to  the  conscience 
of  the  individual  man,  that  which  makes  them  in  some  imperfect 
degree  commentaries  on  the  w^orld's  history.  Wherein  lay  the 
difference  between  St.  Paul's  language  to  his  converts  at  Rome, 
and  that  which  Pythagoras  or  Socrates  would  have  addressed  to 
any  earnest  disciple  ?  It  lay  in  this.  "  We  know,"  he  says, 
"  that  the  good  power  who  is  raising  us  up,  has  claimed  us  as 
his  own.  Our  baptism  is  a  witness,  not  that  we  have  chosen 
the  good  and  eschewed  the  evil,  not  that  we  are  following  truth 
and  flying  from  falsehood,  but  that  He  who  is  good  and  true  has 
chosen  us,  that  he  has  taken  us  into  his  service."  This  is  the 
main  idea  of  the  chapter,  that  those  who  were  servants  of  sin 
were  taken  to  be  servants  of  God,  that  their  right  to  this  name 
had  been  asserted  and  established,  that  their  highest  blessing 
and  privilege  was  to  yield  up  their  members  as  instruments  of 
righteousness.  But  the  contrast  of  death  and  life  which  the 
Apostle  introduces,  gives  a  new  expansion  to  this  idea.  "Ye 
are  dead,"  he  says,  "  to  sin  :  count  yourselves  dead.  Ye  are 
alive  to  God  ;  count  yourselves  alive."  Here  are  both  the  facts 
of  humanity  which  he  has  been  expounding  in  connection  with 
the  history  of  the  race  in  the  last  chapter,  brought  in  to  expound 
the  history  of  the  individual.  It  is  not  only  that  there  is  an 
Adam  head  of  the  race,  and  a  Christ  head  ;  there  is  a  Christ 
head,  and  an  Adam  head  of  thee.  But  the  Christ  has  triumphed 
over  the  Adam,  the  Son  of  God  in  your  nature  has  been  Victo- 
rious over  your  nature ;  it  has  been  slain  in  Him,  it  has  been 
raised  to  a  new  life  in  Him.  And  now  God  claims  each  one  of 
you  as  His.  Each  one  of  you  is  claimed  as  a  sharer  of  the  death 
of  Christ,  as  a  sharer  of  His  life.  Act  as  if  you  were  a  child  of 
Adam,  as  if  the  Adam  in  you  was  your  master, — then  you  are  a 
sinner,  and  you  have  the  wages  of  sin  which  is  death.  Act  as 
if  the  Adam  was  dead,  and  you  were  a  new  man  married  to 
Jesus  Christ, — then  you  acquire  His  righteousness,  you  have 
your  fruit  unto  holiness,  and  the  end  that  eternal  life  which 
consists  in  the  knowledge  of  God  and  of  Jesus  Christ. 


260  LECTURE    II. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


Christ  and  sin  have  been  spoken  of  as  two  powers  to  either  of 
which  a  man  may  yield  obedience.  Claiming  Christ,  being  mar- 
ried to  Him,  the  man  dies  to  sin,  and  dying  to  sin,  he  dies  to  the 
law  which  condemns  sin  ;  it  no  longer  condemns  him,  it  con- 
demns a  state  which  he  disclaims.  He  is  married  to  another,  to 
Him  that  is  risen  from  the  dead,  that  He  may  bring  forth  fruits 
to  God. 

Then  comes  that  wonderful  history,  about  which  commentators 
have  fought  so  much  ;  in  which  suffering  people  find  an  explana- 
tion of  themselves,  which  they  feel  must  be  in  some  sense  the 
history  of  a  past  experience — one  out  of  which  the  Apostle 
emerged  when  the  full  light  broke  upon  his  soul — in  another 
sense  the  discovery  of  that  which  was  true  of  him  at  all  times  as 
it  is  true  of  all  men  in  all  times.  The  key  to  the  whole  passage 
is,  I  believe,  in  these  words :  "  I  was  alive  without  the  Law  once; 
but  the  commandment  having  come,  sin  came  into  life,  and  I 
died."  This  then  is  the  death  which  sin  causes,  the  instant 
death  :  "  /died  ;  I  was  shut  up  in  self.  I  could  not  get  beyond 
myself ;  therefore  as  a  spirit  I  was  dead.  I  strove  to  escape  out 
of  this  prison.  I  yearned  after  a  higher  state.  I  felt  that  I  be- 
longed to  it ;  I  delighted  in  the  law  of  God  :  I  could  not  obey  it. 
Oh,  wretched  man  !  How  can  I  be  delivered  from  this  death  ? 
If  I  am  still  the  same,  what  new  circumstances  can  make  any  dif- 
ference to  me  ?  If  /  am  evil,  what  forgiveness  can  make  any 
difference  to  me  ?  But  thou  art  not  evil  ;  thou  art  righteous  ; 
Christ  is  in  thee  ;  thou  art  one  with  Him.  I  thank  my  God 
through  Jesus  Christ  my  Lord."  This  is  surely  the  history  of  a 
discovery  made  to  the  Apostle  at  a  certain  time.  A  truth  was 
revealed  to  him  which  was  good  for  all  his  after  years.  He  had 
no  need  to  repeat  the  same  terrible  process  again  ;  God  claimed 
him  as  a  new  creature  in  Christ.  He  was  so  then ;  He  would 
be    so    always.     But    that   revelation  brought  with    it   another. 


THE    EPISTLE    TO    THE    ROMANS.  261 

"With  my  flesh  I  serve  the  law  of  sin."  That  is  not  altered  by 
my  conversion  or  my  baptism ;  my  conversion  and  baptism  both 
declare  it.  In  you,  your  flesh,  your  separate  self,  they  both  alike 
say,  there  dwelleth  no  good  thing.  Only  while  you  assert  the 
privflege  of  a  spiritual  creature,  the  privilege  of  not  being  shut 
up  in  self,  of  being  married  to  a  living  Lord,  only  then  art  thou 
righteous,  only  then  art  thou  alive. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  8th  chapter  most  consistently  carries  out  this  idea. 
"  There  is  therefore  no  condemnation  to  those  who  are  in  Christ 
Jesus.  For  the  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  hath  freed 
me  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death."  These  words,  and  all  the 
magnificent  passage  that  follows  them,  develope  more  fully  the 
truth  which  has  been  gradually  working  itself  out  through  all  the 
previous  part  of  the  epistle,  that  man  in  the  flesh,  in  himself,  is 
condemned,  hopelessly  condemned,  that  his  state  is  a  state  of 
alienation  from  God,  a  death  which  must  go  on  by  an  unchange- 
able eternal  law  ;  that  man  in  the  spirit,  in  Christ  Jesus,  is  justi- 
fied, redeemed,  renewed,  under  a  law  of  resurrection,  with  all 
possibilities  of  expanding  vision  and  ever-increasing  glory.  What 
is  added  to  that  great  revelation  in  this  chapter  is,  that  the  spirit 
united  to  Christ  raises  up  the  body  to  be  its  minister,  to  partake 
its  risen  freedom,  even  as  the  body  has  drawn  down  the  spirit  to 
partake  of  its  subjection  to  all  visible  things.  Nor  does  the  re- 
generating law  and  principle  stop  here.  The  Apostle  sees  the 
whole  involuntary  creation  subjected  to  man's  bondage  ;  there- 
fore, assured  of  a  share  in  his  emancipation.  So  little  does  he 
tolerate  the  notion  that  the  fallen  condition  of  any  creature  can 
ever,  by  any  possibility,  become  its  true  condition,  so  deeply  does 
the  thought  penetrate  his  mind  and  his  theology,  that  humanity 
can  only  be  contemplated  in  Christ,  that  the  law  of  the  spirit  of 
life  in  Him  is  the  law  of  the  universe.  All  the  passages  at  the 
conclusion  of  the  chapter  respecting  those  whom  God  foreknew. 


262  LECTURE    II. 

predestinated,  justified,  called,  glorified  ;  passages,  which,  so  far 
from  wishing  to  pass  over  or  evade,  I  would  most  earnestly  press 
upon  the  attention  of  every  reader,  and  entreat  him  to  seek  more 
and  more  earnestly  for  the  fullest  signification  of  them  ;  all  these 
must  be  interpreted  by  the  Apostle's  previous  language.  If  we 
forget  what  he  has  said  about  the  spirit  and  the  flesh,  if  we  fail 
to  see  that  there  is  a  flesh  and  a  spirit  in  every  man,  if  we  do  not 
confess  that  the  spiritual  man  is  the  man,  the  one  who  is  walking 
according  to  God's  will  and  the  constitution  which  He  has  estab 
lished  for  human  beings,  all  those  words  lose  their  force  ;  we  may 
seem  to  take  them  literally  ;  we  shall  find  by  degrees  that  we  are 
obliged  to  twist  the  letter  as  much  as  we  pervert  the  spirit  of  the 
texts  in  which  they  occur.  When,  therefore,  the  Apostle  con- 
cludes with  that  song  of  rapture  :  "  Who  shall  lay  any  thing  to 
the  charge  of  God's  elect  1  "  I  apprehend  those  will  hear  it  most 
faintly,  and  will  join  least  in  it,  who  are  trying  to  make  out  for 
themselves  the  right  to  be  God's  elect  to  the  exclusion  of  others; 
and  that  those  hearts  will  echo  most  clearly  with  it,  which  thank 
God  that  He  has  been  pleased  of  His  mere  mercy  and  love  to 
call  them  out  of  the  pride  and  exclusiveness  that  are  natural  to 
them,  to  enter  into  those  common  blessings  and  privileges  which 
he  has  bestowed  upon  their  kind  in  Him  who  died  and  rose 
again  for  it,  and  to  have  a  glimpse  of  that  infinite  love  which  is 
above  all,  and  over  all,  and  through  all,  and  beneath  all. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

The  9th  chapter  opens  with  an  expression  of  the  infinite  sor- 
row which  St.  Paul  had  felt  when  he  thought  of  his  nation  as  cast 
away  by  God.  He  felt  the  anguish  of  an  Israelite,  but  he  felt 
more  than  that.  The  permanence  of -this  nation  is  bound  up 
with  this  belief  in  the  promises  of  God.  If  it  ceases  then  the 
Word  of  God  hath  failed  ;  He  who  is,  and  was,  and  is  to  come, 
has  changed  His  mind  and  purpose.  But  this,  says  St.  Paul,  is 
impossible  ;  Israel  cannot  cease.     And  is  it  a  new  thing  to  dis- 


THE    EPISTLE    TO    THE    ROMANS.  263 

tinguish  Israelites  from  Israel  ?  Is  not  the  whole  history  full  of 
cases  of  men  who  seemed  to  be  the  natural  heirs  of  the  promises 
being  rejected,  while  yet  the  promise  and  the  race  continue  ? 
What  is  the  meaning  of  such  cases  ?  They  are  explained  by  that 
great  law  which  has  been  developed  already — the  law  of  the 
spirit  and  the  flesh.  Israelites  fancy  that  they  are  such  in  virtue 
of  their  descent  from  Abraham  or  Isaac.  What !  were  not  Ish- 
mael  and  Esau  firstborn  of  Abraham  and  Isaac?  What  did 
their  rejection  indicate  ?  Not  any  special  wrong-doing  on  their 
part.  Their  exclusion  was  decided  before  they  had  done  good 
or  bad.  Why  ?  To  signify  that  the  race  stood  on  a  higher 
ground  than  that  of  fleshly  relationship,  that  it  was  the  witness 
of  a  spiritual  relationship; — of  God's  calling,  not  of  man's  gene- 
ration,— of  sonship  to  Him,  not  of  sonship  to  Abraham. 

This  is  the  idea  wdiich  the  reader  will  find  going  through  the 
whole  chapter.  Popular  waiters,  as  well  as  learned  commenta- 
tors, have  strangely  inverted  it.  Instead  of  making  the  perma- 
nence consist  in  the  preservation  of  Israel^  they  have  construed 
St.  Paul's  words  as  if  he  said,  Israel  may  perish,  but  a  few  select 
Israelites,  of  whom  I  am  one,  will  be  saved ;  a  kind  of  consola- 
tion which,  instead  of  making  his  anguish  of  heart  less,  would 
have  utterly  overwhelmed  him  j  for  then  the  Word  of  God  had 
failed,  the  distinct  promises  and  assurances  of  the  prophets  had 
not  been  fulfilled.  Secondly,  in  strict  conformity  with  this  first 
misinterpretation,  they  have  supposed  that  the  exclusion  of  Ish- 
mael  and  of  Esau  when  they  had  done  neither  good  nor  evil,  is 
an  assertion  of  God's  arbitrariness  or  self-will,  or,  as  they  phrase 
it,  sovereignty.  If  it  had  been  so,  all  that  conceit  of  the  Jews 
of  their  own  privileges  and  superiority  to  other  people  with  which 
St.  Paul  was  fighting,  would  have  been  confirmed  by  the  very 
instances  he  was  employing  as  arguments  against  it.  Whereas, 
if  he  says  to  the  Jew,  "  You  cannot  pretend  that  Jacob  was 
chosen  because  he  was  better  than  Esau,  or  Isaac,  because  he 
was  better  than  Ishmael  ;  but  it  was  done  to  fulfil  a  purpose  of 
the  divine  mind,  and  that  purpose  the  very  one  which  I  have 
been  setting  forth  in  all  this  letter,  to  put  contempt  upon  mere 


264  LECTURE    II. 

fleshly  descent  which  is  partial  and  limited,  and  to  assert  thai 
spiritual  bond  which  exists  between  God  and  man  in  Christ,  the 
Lord  of  man's  spirit,  the  Son  of  God  and  the  Son  of  Man ;  "  he 
maintains  the  great  object  for  which  he  lived,  and  deduces  his 
right  to  be  an  apostle  to  the  Gentiles  from  the  history  of  the 
Jews. 

Starting  from  these  false  premises,  it  has  been  natural  enough 
that  interpreters  should  have  seen  in  all  the  rest  of  the  chapter 
a  mere  assertion  of  naked  sovereignty  displayed  in  choosing  one 
set  of  men  and  rejecting  another.  And  no  doubt,  if  this  partic- 
ular passage  has  no  connection  with  all  the  rest  of  the  letter  in 
which  it  occurs  ;  if  it  has  not  been  the  business  of  that  letter  to 
set  forth  God  emphatically  as  the  righteous  Being  who  is  making 
men  righteous  ;  if  there  has  been  nothing  said  before  about  the 
justification  of  all  by  the  obedience  of  One,  as  all  had  been  con- 
demned by  the  disobedience  of  one  ;  if  there  has  been  no  at- 
tempt to  reconcile  these  different  assertions  by  the  experience  of 
the  Apostle  that  there  was  in  himself,  because  he  was  a  man, 
though  he  was  also  a  circumcised  and  elect  Jew,  a  flesh  in  which 
there  was  no  good  thing,  and  a  spirit  which  hungered  after 
righteousness  ;  if  there  has  been  no  testimony  that  God  in  Christ 
receives  and  adopts  this  spirit,  and  baptizes,  quickens,  raises  it 
by  His  own  Spirit,  and  promises  to  raise  the  body  too  in  due 
time  out  of  its  thraldom  to  that  flesh  which  He  has  condemned  ; 
if  we  are  to  start  with  the  words,  "  I  will  have  mercy  on  whom 
I  will  have  mercy,"  without  the  least  knowledge  what  manner  of 
being  speaks  the  words,  and  respecting  what  manner  of  being 
they  are  spoken  ;  if  we  are  at  liberty  to  deduce  our  knowledge 
of  these  points  from  some  heathen  conception  of  an  Ammon  or 
a  Jove  ;  most  assuredly  these  words  must  convey  that  impres- 
sion to  the  minds  of  readers  which  has  been  received  from  them. 
But  if  the  fundamental  idea  of  God  be  that  of  the  righteous 
Being,  then  to  believe  that  it  is  not  by  willing  and  running  that 
we  obtain  what  we  seek,  but,  by  God's  mercy,  is  a  repetition  of 
all  that  has  been  said  already,  a  witness  that  man  is  merely 
a    receiver   of    that   good    which  proceeds    from    the    Source 


THE    EPISTLE    TO    THE    ROMANS.  265 

of  o-ood.  It  tells  US  that  we  do  not  work  our  way  to  heaven,  but 
that  heaven  comes  down  to  us  to  receive  us  and  adopt  us  into 
itself.  And  the  answer  of  St.  Paul  to  the  natural  and  continu- 
ally-recurring objection,  "  Who  hath  resisted  His  will  ?  Why 
doth  He  yet  find  fault  ?  "  is  not  an  answer  which  resolves  every 
thing  into  God's  sovereignty,  so  setting  aside  all  the  previous 
doctrine  of  the  epistle ;  but  is  an  assertion  of  the  great  and  con- 
solatory truth,  that  a  man  submitting  himself  to  the  will  of  the 
Ruler  of  the  universe,  submits  to  a  perfectly  gracious  and  loving 
and  merciful  will,  which  is  seeking  to  make  him  gracious,  and 
merciful,  and  loving  ;  and  that  a  man  resisting  and  disputing 
this  will,  striving  against  it,  contending  with  his  Maker,  hardens 
himself,  shuts  himself  up  in  self-will,  becomes  proud,  ungracious, 
unloving.  And  this  especially,  when,  like  those  with  whom  St. 
Paul  is  arguing,  he  sets  up  his  religious  privileges,  his,  divine 
election,  as  a  ground  and  plea  for  self-exaltation,  as  a  reason  for 
preferring  himself  to  his  brethren.  Thence  comes  that  special 
hardness  of  heart  which  the  Jews  at  this  time  were  displaying, 
which  made  them,  as  he  says  elsewhere,  '•  enemies  to  God,  and 
contrary  to  all  men."  The  very  pride  of  Pharaoh  was  coming 
out  in  the  descendants  of  the  men  who  had  been  delivered  from 
the  yoke  of  Pharaoh.  In  that  case  God's  will  had  been  mani- 
fested and  accomplished  through  Pharaoh's  hardening  of  the 
heart  against  His  will,  God's  power  and  grace  had  been  shown 
through  his  disobedience.  It  would  be  the  same  again.  God's 
will  would  be  shown  forth  through  the  hardening  of  the  heart  of 
these  Israelites. 

This  is  no  doubt  going  down  very  deep.  There  is  a  will,  a 
divine  will  discovered  beneath  and  at  the  root  of  all  things.  Our 
minds  reel  and  stagger  if  they  do  not  fall  prostrate  in  the  con- 
templation of  it.  But  if  they  do,  they  discover  what  St.  Paul  is 
teaching  them,  that  it  is  a  will  of  absolute  righteousness  and 
mercy,  a  will  of  long-suffering  to  those  who  have  resisted  it,  a 
will  of  grace  and  compassion  to  those  who  are  not  asking  for  it. 
For  the  prophets  of  old  have  taught  St.  Paul  to  believe  that  God 
will  manifest  this  mercy  and  grace  of  His  to  a  people  who  have 


266  LECTURE    II. 

not  sought  after  Him,  but  whom  He  had  never  forgotten.  He 
says  in  Hosea,  "  I  will  call  that  which  is  not  my  people,  my 
people,  and  her  that  is  not  beloved,  beloved  ; "  an  assertion 
which  does  not  in  the  least  annul  but  confirm  the  assertion  made 
by  Isaiah,  that  God  would  preserve  a  remnant  of  Israel,  that  the 
nation  in  its  truest,  highest,  divinest  sense,  should  never  perish. 
The  result  then,  so  far  as  we  have  got,  is,  that  the  Gentiles  have 
obtained  righteousness,  that  righteousness  which  comes  out  of 
faith,  the  righteousness  that  comes  out  of  believing  in  God's 
righteousness  and  trusting  in  it  and  yielding  to  it.  In  other 
words,  a  righteousness  has  been  revealed  to  men,  which  those 
who  claim  it  in  the  only  way  a  spiritual  possession  can  be  claimed, 
become  endued  with  really  and  substantially.  But  Israelites  con- 
stantly aiming  at  a  law  of  righteousness,  putting  it  forth  as  their 
property,  boasting  of  it,  have  not  obtained  it,  have  not  become 
righteous,  but  have  become  unrighteous  and  hard-hearted.  Why } 
Because  they  have  not  believed  in  God's  righteousness  as  the 
ground  of  their  own,  but  have  tried  to  create  a  righteousness  by 
their  selfish  acts.  God  has  laid  a  foundation  for  them  to  build 
upon  and  rest  upon  ;  He  has  revealed  His  Son  as  the  great 
centre  and  corner-stone  of  humanity :  those  who  have  stumbled 
at  that  stone,  lose  their  place  in  the  spiritual  temple  ;  those  who 
confess  it,  will  not  be  confounded. 


CHAPTER  X. 

These  last  words  of  Isaiah  seem  to  be  very  deeply  fixed  in  the 
Apostle's  mind.  He  recurs  to  them  in  the  next  chapter ;  the 
spirit  of  them  goes  through  that  chapter.  He  does  not  confine 
himself  however  to  them  as  the  support  of  his  great  proposition, 
that  the  Jewish  Scriptures  are  throughout  asserting  a  righteous- 
ness which  lies  at  the  foundation  of  things  ;  which  the  law  did 
not  create  but  which  is  the  foundation  of  the  law  ;  which  men's 
works  do  not  create,  but  which  is  the  foundation  of  men's  works; 
which  belongs  as  much  to   Gentile  as  to  Jew.     Moses,  he  says, 


THE    EPISTLE    TO    THE    ROMANS.  26/ 

has  clearly  distinguished  that  kind  of  righteousness  which  con- 
sists in  the  observation  of  precepts  ;  ^'  he  that  doeth  these  things 
shall  live  in  it  "  (Lachmann  reads  aurfj,  which  perhaps  is  better 
than  the  common  reading,  though  that  yields  a  good  and  not  a 
very  different  sense).  On  the  other  hand  he  describes  that 
righteousness  which  is  the  object  of  faith,  in  the  words,  "  Say  not 
thou.  Who  shall  go  up  into  the  heaven  ?  who  shall  go  down  into 
the  deep.  The  word  is  nigh  thee,  even  in  thy  mouth,  and  in  thy 
heart."  A  wonderful  passage  indeed,  and  one  which  throws  the 
clearest  light  upon  all  that  the  Apostle  has  been  saying.  The 
righteousness  in  which  a  man  believes,  is  not  at  a  great  distance 
from  him,  not  far  off  in  some  heaven,  not  down  in  some  abyss  ; 
it  is  close  to  him,  it  is  with  him.  He  stands  upon  it ;  his  faith  is 
the  confession  of  it  as  the  ground  of  his  existence.  So  much 
Moses  had  said  ;  and  speaking  thm,  the  Apostle  declares  he  had 
spoken  of  Christ,  he  had  declared  Him  who  was  the  ground  of 
that  righteousness  of  which  the  law  is  the  outward  expression. 
But  yet  that  desire  of  ascending  into  the  heaven  and  going  into 
the  deep,  was  a  natural  and  human  desire.  All  nations  had  felt 
it.  All  had  asked  what  that  firmament  above  which  man  was 
made  to  look  up  to  and  to  gaze  upon,  signified  to  him,  how  he 
could  ascend  to  claim  the  rights  which  he  seemed  to  have  there. 
All  had  asked  what  that  deep  beneath  is  which  man  dreams  of 
with  his  spirit,  that  grave  into  which  his  body  descends,  that  dark 
infinite  which  is  continually  proclaiming  itself  as  the  beginning 
and  end  of  aW  things.  Here  come  in  the  facts  of  the  Gospel  in 
connection  with  the  principle  of  it.  Christ  hath  descended  into 
the  grave  and  hell,  Christ  hath  ascended  into  heaven.  The  Lord 
your  righteousness,  the  Divine  Word,  the  Son  of  God  and  the 
Son  of  Man,  has  penetrated  the  regions  which  you  have  longed 
W)  penetrate ;  He  knows  them  all,  He  has  claimed  them  all  as 
His  father's  possession.  Believing  in  Him,  you  may  be  perfectly 
delivered  from  that  restlessness  to  which  Moses  knew  that  his 
own  people  and  all  people  would  be  prone. 

I   am    quite    aware  that   in    the    sentence  which  follows  the 
"  word  "  is  pTj/j.rx  not  ^oyog.     The  word  of  faith  which  the  Apostle 


268  LECTURE    II. 

preached  was,  "  If  thou  shalt  confess  with  thy  mouth  the  Lord 
Jesus,  and  shalt  believe  in  thine  heart  that  God  hath  raised  Him 
from  the  dead,  thou  shalt  be  saved."  There  was  to  be  an  open 
proclamation  to  the  whole  world,  that  this  Man  was  the  Lord  of 
men.  If  that  word  did  not  go  forth,  if  it  was  choked  and  sup- 
pressed, the  man  would  not  believe  that  Jesus  was  his  Lord.  But 
along  with  this  there  must  be  the  belief  in  the  heart,  that  God 
had  raised  Him  from  the  dead,  the  belief  that  this  Lord  was  in- 
deed the  conqueror  of  death,  otherwise  there  could  not  be  salva- 
tion from  the  fear  of  death  ;  from  the  tyranny  of  man's  great 
enemy.  "For  with  the  heart,"  he  says,  "there  is  a  belief  unto 
righteousness  ;  but  wdth  the  mouth  there  is  a  confession  unto 
salvation."  Within  the  heart  man  believes  in  his  righteous 
King  and  Deliverer,  and  so  becomes  righteous.  He  joins  with 
his  mouth  in  the  confession  ^  Him,  and  so  he  is  fully  set  free 
from  his  oppressors.  We  have  here  the  revelation  I  conceive  of 
the  mysterious  law  which  declares  that  we  are  members  of  one 
body,  and  therefore  that  though  it  is  altogether  an  inward  and 
spiritual  process  to  become  partaker  of  righteousness,  it  is  not 
and  cannot  be  a  mere  individual  process  ;  we  can  only  be  saved 
from  our  evil,  so  large  a  portion  of  which  consists  in  our  selfish- 
ness and  isolation  when  we  confess  a  common  Saviour  and  centre. 
The  Apostle  appears  to  connect  this  principle  as  well  as  the 
whole  doctrine  which  he  has  been  unfolding  with  the  common 
and  equal  privileges  of  Jew  and  Greek.  When  he  quotes  Isaiah 
again,  he  evidently  lays  the  emphasis  on  the  "  evei^  one  ; "  "for 
the  Scripture  saith  every  o?ie  that  believeth  in  Him  shall  not  be 
ashamed.  For  there  is  no  difference  between  the  Jew  and  the 
Greek ;  for  the  same  Lord  over  all  is  rich  unto  all  that  call  upon 
Him.  For  whosoever  shall  call  on  the  Name  of  the  Lord  shall 
be  saved."  |^ 

That  there  is  a  righteousness  for  men,  for  all  men,  a  righteous- 
ness which  they  know  of,  and  against  which  they  revolt,  has  been 
the  truth  which  St.  Paul  has  been  unfoldino^  from  the  beHnninpf 
of  his  epistle.  He  is  now  driven  back  upon  the  cjuestion  which 
arose  at  the  very  commencement  of  it.    "  But  how  could  the  Gen- 


THE    EPISTLE    TO    THE    ROMANS.  269 

tiles  call  upon  One  of  whom  they  had  not  heard  ?  And  how 
could  they  believe  unless  there  was  some  preacher  to  them  ? 
And  how  could  there  be  a  preacher  if  one  was  not  sent  forth  ?  " 
He  meets  this  question  by  quoting  the  words  of  Isaiah  :  "  How 
beautiful  are  the  feet  of  them  that  preach  the  gospel  of  peace, 
and  bring  glad  tidings  of  good  things."  These  words  undoubt- 
edly declared  that  the  Jews  were  appointed  as  heralds  of  bless- 
ings to  the  people  of  the  earth.  JJndoubtedly  the  message  was 
not  heeded  by  the  great  body  of  those  to  whom  it  was  sent ;  for 
Isaiah  said,  "  Lord,  who  hath  believed  our  report  ?  "  words  clearly 
intimating  that  there  is  a  hearing  which  precedes  faith,  as  there 
is  a  word  or  report  of  Christ  which  is  the  ground  of  hearing.  But 
had  there  not  been  a  hearing,  and  a  word  or  report,  which  might 
have  been  the  ground  of  faith  ?  What  meant,  then,  the  language 
of  the  19th  Psalm  :  "  Their  voice  hath  gone  out  into  all  the  earth, 
and  their  words  into  the  ends  of  the  world?"  Whether  Jews 
preached  or  not,  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  had  been  preaching  to 
all  men  everywhere.  "  What,  preaching  of  Christ  ?  "  one  of  our 
learned  theologians  will  exclaim.  Yes,  sir,  preaching  of  Christ. 
The  Apostle  taught  us  so  in  the  ist  chapter  ;  he  said  that  God's 
works  were  not  declaring  a  designer,  not  addressing  subtle  argu- 
ments to  the  understanding,  but  preaching  to  the  common  heart 
and  conscience  of  mankind,  of  a  God  whom  they  were  to  obey, 
of  a  God  near  them,  of  a  God  against  whom  they  were  rebelling 
when  they  were  proud,  sensual,  covetous.  They  were  preaching 
then  of  a  Lord  of  man,  of  a  Lord  of  his  spirit ;  they  were  preach- 
ing of  that  Lord,  who,  in  the  fulness  of  time,  had  taken  flesh, 
and  dwelt  among  thfem.  And  were  not  Israelites  told  this  in 
their  scriptures  ?  Was  it  a  new  thing,  which  the  Apostle  was 
proclaiming  for  the  first  time,  that  other  nations  might  be  ac- 
quainted with  the  truths  of  which  the  Jews  were  the  stewards.-* 
How  then  did  they  interpret  the  words  of  Moses,  "  I  will  stir  you 
up  to  jealousy  with  that  which  is  not  a  nation ;  with  a  foolish 
nation  will  I  provoke  you?"  Did  not  that  signify  that  people 
of  other  nations,  not  within  the  covenant,  were  admitted  to  the 
knowledge  of  truths  against  which  the  Jews  closed  their  ears  and 


2/0  LECTURE    II. 

hearts  ?  Or,  again,  what  did  they  make  of  that  audacious  sa}'- 
ing  of  Isaiah  :  "  I  have  been  found,"  actually  found,  "  by  those 
that  were  not  seeking  me  ;  I  have  been  made  manifest  to  those 
that  were  not  asking  after  me ;  "  whereas  he  says  to  Israel,  "  All 
the  day  long  have  I  stretched  out  my  hands  to  a  people  that  is 
disobedient  and  contradictory." 


CHAPTER  XL 

The  question  then  recurs  which  cost  the  Apostle  such  infinite 
distress  :  "  Hath  God  cast  away  His  people  ?  "  "  That  cannot 
be,"  is  the  answer  ;  "for  I  am  an  Israelite,  of  the  seed  of  Abra- 
ham, of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin."  How  is  this  an  answer  ?  Cer- 
tainly a  very  poor  one  if  St.  Paul  thought  as  so  many  of  his 
interpreters  think,  that  his  salvation  was  an  exceptional  thing,  a 
blessing  conferred  on  the  individual  Saul  of  Tarsus  because  it 
pleased  God  of  His  pure  sovereignty  that  he  should  not  suffer 
the  doom  to  which  the  race,  by  the  same  sovereignty,  had  been 
consigned.  I'eople  being  used  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word, 
St.  Paul  could  not  be  considered  as  the  representative  of  the 
people  ;  his  preservation  could  be  no  proof  of  the  fidelity  of 
God's  promises  to  them.  But  if  Israel  were  called  out  by  God 
to  represent  the  true  state  of  man,  to  declare  man's  relation  to 
God,  to  declare  that  the  relation  is  a  spiritual  and  not  a  carnal 
one,  then  any  person  who  took  his  own  standing  upon  that  spir- 
itual relation  of  man  to  God,  who  repudiated  the  carnal  ground 
of  confidence,  who  preached  to  Gentiles  as  well  as  Jews,  that 
they  were  spiritually  related  to  God,  such  a  person  was  not  a 
mere  fragment  rescued  from  a  rejected  race  ;  he  embodied  in 
himself  the  very  principle  of  the  race,  the  very  purpose  for  which 
it  had  been  called  out.  Though  he  were  alone,  the  nation  would 
survive  in  him.  St.  Paul  however  has  no  proud  thought  that  he 
is  alone.  He  recollects  the  case  of  Elias,  how  it  seemed  to  him 
as  if  he  were  the  last  survivor  of  a  God-worshipping  tribe,  as  if 
the  whole  people  were  bowing  to  the  Baal  of  Phoenicia  ;  how  he 


THE    EPISTLE    TO    THE    ROMANS.  2/1 

was  taught  that  there  were  7000  men  in  the  land  of  Ahab,  in  the 
land  where  there  was  no  tenriple-worship,  who  were  trusting  in 
the  Lord  God  of  their  fathers. 

"  Even  so,"  he  says,  "  there  is  a  remnant  according  to  the 
election  of  grace  ;  "  a  remnant  in  Isaiah's  sense,  in  the  sense  of 
all  the  prophets,  not  the  least  in  the  sense  of  the  modern  predes- 
tinarian  ;  a  remnant  which  testifies  that  the  root  of  the  nation  has 
not  perished,  that  the  substance  of  the  oak  and  the  tiel-tree  re- 
mains, though  the  branches  have  perished  ;  not  one  which  proves 
that  the  great  majority  of  branches  have  been  lopped  off,  and  a 
few  preserved  by  an  arbitrary  decree.  But  the  Apostle  insists 
upon  his  old  doctrine.  How  has  this  remnant  been  preserved  ? 
Surely  by  the  grace  of  God  ;  by  the  grace  of  that  loving,  gracious 
Being  from  whom  all  good  in  His  creatures  proceeds  ;  not  by 
some  works  or  deserts  of  theirs.  It  was  not  necessary  to  reassert 
this  principle  in  answer  to  the  Jew  who  rejected  the  Gospel.  He 
had  been  confuted  enough  already.  It  had  been  demonstrated 
that  he  could  only  claim  any  election  at  all,  any  superiority  to 
the  Gentile,  in  virtue  of  God's  calling,  and  that  when  he  set  up 
any  boast  of  superiority  to  the  Gentiles,  when  he  said  that  he 
was  better  than  they,  he  renounced  that  claim,  and  chose  a  test, 
which,  unless  all  his  history  was  false,  must  condemn  him.  But 
it  was  very  necessary  for  the  sake  of  the  Christian  Church,  the 
Gentile  portion  of  it  as  well  as  the  Jewish,  that  this  principle 
should  be  reiterated,  enforced,  driven  home.  It  was  perfectly 
certain  that  in  the  Christian  Church  there  would  arise  the  same 
lying  thought  which  had  arisen  in  the  Jews',  "  In  ourselves,  in 
virtue  of  some  acts  of  ours  or  of  our  covenant,  we  are  better  than 
other  men,"  and  that  this  would  produce  worse  fruits  in  the  time 
to  come  than  it  had  produced  already.  Therefore  St.  Paul  must 
lay  his  axe  to  the  root  of  the  delusion  ;  he  must  show  the  Gen- 
tiles what  the  meaning,  cause,  and  conditions,  of  the  Jewish  re- 
jection and  apostasy  were,  that  they  might  understand  how  the 
like  rejection  and  apostasy  might  befall  themselves.  How  does 
the  case  stand  then  ?  Israel,  the  Israel  after  the  flesh,  those 
who  have  stood  upon  their  fleshly  privileges,  have  sought  some- 


272  LECTURE    n. 

thing  which  they  have  not  found.  But  the  election,  those  who 
have  stood  on  the  spiritual  ground,  those  who  have  asserted 
their  spiritual  privileges,  have  obtained  what  the}^  sought.  The 
rest  have  been  obdurated.  They  are  those  to  whom  the  words 
of  Isaiah  apply  ;  God  has  given  them  a  spirit  of  slumber,  eyes 
not  to  see,  ears  not  to  hear.  A  fearful  sentence  surely,  the  most 
fearful  that  can  befall  a  man  or  a  nation  ;  but  a  sentence  which 
shows  that  there  is  something  to  see,  something  to  hear.  They 
are  in  the  light,  or  their  blindness  would  mean  nothing  ;  there  is 
a  voice  speaking  to  them,  or  you  could  not  impute  deafness  to 
them.  Every  charge  against  the  Jews  supposes  ignorance  of  a 
state  which  actually  belonged  to  them,  ignorance  brought  on  by 
a  wilful  struggle  against  a  divine  Guide  and  Teacher  who  was 
seeking  to  make  them  know  themselves  and  Him.  Every  dread- 
ful malediction,  such  as  that  which  St.  Paul  quotes  from  the 
109th  Psalm,  is  a  malediction  upon  a  race  of  proud,  self-right- 
eous, self-seeking  men,  who  have  become  brutal  and  cruel,  be- 
cause they  have  broken  loose  from  a  gracious  and  merciful 
Ruler,  who  must  learn  what  it  is  to  be  left  to  stumble  and  prowl 
about  in  the  darkness  which  they  have  chosen. 

"  They  have  stumbled,''  continues  St.  Paul.  "  But  is  it  in  order 
that  they  should  fall.'*"  He  answers  boldly,  "By  no  means." 
And  then  he  proceeds  with  an  argument  which  is  based  upon 
the  truth  he  has  been  asserting  in  so  many  ways  in  this  Epistle, 
that  neither  Jews  nor  Gentiles  were  holy  in  themselves,  that  they 
weije  holy  only  because  the  root  was  holy ;  that  the  Jew  could  not 
boast  against  the  Gentile  ;  still  less  could  the  Gentile  boast  against 
the  Jew  ;  that  each  lived  only  so  long  as  it  abided  by  faith  in  the 
root ;  that  each  not  abiding  in  the  root,  might  be  cut  off.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  is  in  the  root  a  life  and  sap  and  fructifying  power, 
which  can  restore  and  regenerate  that  which  is  decayed  and  dead. 
Israel  not  abiding  in  the  root,  claiming  some  independent  virtue 
for  itself,  has  been  cutoff.  The  like  cause  will  produce  the  like 
effect  in  the  case  of  any  nation.  But  let  the  Gentiles  receive  and 
acknowledge  this  mystery,  however  hard  the  apprehension  of  it 
may  be  ;  that  blindness  has  happened  to  Israel,  until  the  fulness 


THE    EPISTLE    TO    THE    ROMANS.  2/3 

of  the  Gentiles  has  entered  in.  And  so  all  Israel  shall  be  saved, 
as  it  is  written,  "  there  shall  come  a  Deliverer  out  of  Zion,  and 
shall  turn  away  iniquities  from  Jacob."  Mercy  to  the  Gentiles 
in  this  way  becomes  the  final  cause  of  the  Jewish  fall,  in  order 
that  the  same  mercy  may  reach  to  them  ;  for  "  God  hath  con- 
cluded them  all  in  unbelief,  that  He  may  have  mercy  on  all."  I 
can  give  no  interpretation  of  these  words.  I  must  simply  leave 
them  to  interpret  themselves  to  the  mind  of  the  reader.  St. 
Paul  did  not  profess  to  understand  them  himself.  But  he  knew 
that  they  were  true.  He  could  realize  their  truth  when  he 
said,  "  Oh  the  depth  of  the  riches  both  of  the  wisdom  and 
knowledge  of  God."  He  did  not  try  to  sound  a  love  which  he 
found  to  be  unfathomable  ;  he  was  content  to  be  lost  in  it. 


CHAPTER  Xn. 

But  that  revelation  of  Mercy  and  Love,  however  deep  and  in- 
finite, was  not  less  the  foundation  of  practical  life.  "  I  beseech 
you,  Brethren,"  he  says,  "  by  the  mercies  of  God,  to  present  your 
bodies  a  sacrifice,  living,  holy,  acceptable  to  God,  that  reasona- 
ble service  of  yours  ;  and  not  to  be  conformed  to  this  world,  but 
to  be  transformed  by  the  renewing  of  the  reason,  in  order  that 
you  may  test  what  is  that  Will  of  God,  the  good  and  acceptable 
and  perfect.  Rebellion  against  a  perfect  Will  which  has  been 
manifesting  itself  in  acts  of  love  to  all  creatures,  which  has  been 
exhibiting  its  power,  its  redeeming  power,  over  them  and  through 
them  and  in  them,  has  been  the  misery  of  Jew  as  well  as  Gentile. 
This  has  been  the  cause  of  the  blindness,  the  incapacity  of  dis- 
cerning the  nature  of  that  Will,  which  has  come  upon  both. 
Simple  submission,  an  entire  surrender  of  the  man's  self  to  God, 
is  that  reasonable  sacrifice  by  which  the  man  puts  himself  in  the 
right  state,  claims  his  true  relation,  acquires  the  capacity  of 
seeing  that  which  had  been  hidden  from  him  or  had  been  in- 
verted. Offering  up  that  sacrifice,  there  would  be  no  more  that 
self-exaltation,  that  boasting  of  one  above  another,  which  is  the 


2/4  LECTURE    II. 

destruction  of  Christian  fellowship.  "  For,"  he  continues,  "  as 
we  have  many  members  in  one  body,  but  all  the  members  have 
not  the  same  function,  so  we,  the  many,  are  one  body  in  Christ, 
and  we  are  each  severally  members  of  one  another."  We  shall 
have  this  illustration, — this  parable  of  parables,  this  which  ex- 
plains the  very  nature  of  parable, — of  the  intimate  relation  be- 
tween the  constitution  of  each  individual  and  the  constitution  of 
societ}^,  so  that  each  suggests  and  represents  the  other,  drawn 
out  at  much  greater  length,  into  a  greater  variety  of  detail,  in 
the  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians.  Here  it  has  especial  reference 
to  that  renewing  or  re-casting  of  the  mind,  that  deliverance  from 
the  form  of  this  world,  of  which  the  Apostle  had  just  been  speak- 
ing. Jews  and  Gentiles  had  each  been  striving  for  superiority 
on  one  ground  or  another.  The  Jewish  pride  had  trampled  upon 
the  Gentile  pride,  the  Gentile  pride  had  lifted  itself  against  the 
Jew.  The  discovery  that  they  had  nothing  of  their  own,  that 
they  were  simply  living  upon  God's  free  and  equal  grace,  dis- 
tributed in  measures  and  proportions  according  to  the  capacity 
of  each,  for  the  good  of  all,  showed  the  absurdity  of  this  pride ; 
the  giving  up  of  themselves  as  sacrifices  was  the  renunciation  of 
it.  The  foundation  of  the  new  economy  is  laid  in  the  manifes- 
tation of  the  God  of  righteousness  and  grace  ;  it  is  carried  out 
in  the  reconciliation  which  God  has  effected  for  the  race  by 
giving  up  His  Son  for  all ;  it  is  consummated  when  the  Spirit  of 
grace  and  love  enables  each  man  to  live  and  act  as  the  member 
of  a  body  and  to  give  up  himself.  With  that  sacrifice  begins  the 
faithful  performance  of  all  assigned  tasks  and  offices,  the  knowl- 
edge on  the  part  of  each  man  of  what  he  is  meant  to  be,  the 
cheerful  doing  of  his  own  work  as  God's  work  without  intruding 
upon  the  work  of  his  brother.  Humility  in  this  sense  becomes 
not  an  ornamental  virtue  of  the  individual,  but  a  necessary  con- 
dition of  his  place  in  the  commonwealth.  Out  of  it  flow  all  other 
graces,  zeal,  fervency,  hope,  patience,  prayer,  hospitality,  for- 
giveness of  persecutors,  sympathy,  the  abandonment  of  ven- 
geance to  God,  the  effort  to  subdue  the  evil  of  an  enemy  by 
good. 


THE    EPISTLE    TO    THE    ROMANS.  2/5 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

The  13th  chapter  opens  with  words  which  are  very  famiUar  to 
us  as  being  the  motto  of  sermons  on  the  duties  of  subjects  to 
their  rulers  ;  but  which  we  do  not  perhaps  habitually  connect 
with  those  which  precede  or  those  which  follow  them.  That  sub- 
mission to  the  divine  and  gracious  Will,  which  the  Apostle  has 
been  enjoining,  that  acknowledgment  of  offices  and  capacities 
assigned  to  each  member  of  the  commonwealth,  that  breaking 
down  of  the  ambitious,  grasping,  self-exalting  spirit,  makes  the 
precept,  "  Let  every  soul  be  subject  to  the  higher  powers,  for 
there  is  no  power  but  of  God ;  the  powers  that  be  are  ordained 
of  God,"  the  assertion  of  a  beautiful  order  extending  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest,  through  every  rank  of  creatures,  man  being 
the  one  who  has  the  power  of  disobedience,  the  privilege  of 
cheerful,  voluntary,  obedience.  On  this  ground  it  has  been  con- 
tended by  some,  that  the  powers  spoken  of  here  are  ecclesiasti- 
cal powers,  not  according  to  the  common  notion,  civil  rulers. 
"  Only  in  a  church,"  they  say,  "  organized  according  to  the 
apostolical  idea,  could  there  exist  that  spiritual  authority  and 
spiritual  subjection  which  are  here  enjoined.  To  talk  of  Nero's 
power  as  spiritual  or  divine  is  monstrous.  It  might  be  submitted 
to  from  conscience  as  well  as  fear,  as  an  appointed  scourge  ;  it 
could  never  be  confessed  as  an  ordinance  of  God." 

This  is  a  plausible,  but  I  apprehend  a  mistaken  view  of  the 
case.  The  common  one,  though  dry  and  often  defended  on 
very  false  grounds,  is  nearer  to  the  Apostle's  mind.  Deriving 
his  idea  of  authority  from  the  Church,  and  not  from  the  Empire, 
regarding  this  as  exhibiting  the  principle  of  which  that  exhibited 
the  perversion  and  distortion,  he  was  obliged  to  affirm  all  power 
whatsoever  as  ordained  of  God,  that  he  might  protest  against  all 
arbitrary  use  of  power,  all  claim  of  a  man  to  be  absolute,  as 
hateful  and  ungodly.  The  Apostle  could  not  limit  his  principle 
to  the  Church  without  destroying  the  claim  of  the  Church  to 
affirm  the  true  principle  of  all  human  society. 


276  LECTURE    II. 

I  hold,  therefore,  that  here,  as  elsewhere,  there  is  a  special 
appropriateness  in  the  language  of  the  Apostle  to  the  Church 
which  he  is  addressing,  and  that  this  application  of  his  doctrine 
enables  us  to  understand  how  all  the  previous  teaching  respect- 
ing Righteousness  and  Law,  bore  upon  the  condition  of  the 
Roman  world  as  well  as  of  the  Roman  Church.  The  rest  of  the 
chapter,  in  which  he  brings  out  Love  as  the  fulfilling  of  Law, 
shows  how  his  doctrine  respecting  the  relation  of  gospel  to  law 
bears  upon  the  condition  of  society  as  well  as  upon  the  life  of 
individual  men.  The  gospel  of  God's  love  and  reconciliation 
becomes  the  power  of  God  which  saves  or  delivers  a  man  or  so- 
ciety from  the  power  of  self-will,  and  show  how  both  may  bring 
forth  fruit  to  God,  the  Spirit  of  life  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  pu- 
rifying, quickening,  uniting  the  spirits  of  those  with  whom  He 
dwells.  And  this  Spirit  of  love  is  calling  men's  spirits  out  of 
the  sleep  of  death,  is  bidding  them  wake  up,  because  the  night 
is  far  past  and  the  day  of  Christ  is  at  hand,  a  day  which  must 
scatter  all  confused  images  and  night-birds,  and  must  show 
us  how  nesar  Christ  is  and  has  always  been  to  us.  To  see 
Him  is  our  salvation  from  the  darkness  of  the  world  and  of  our 
own  nature ;  every  hour  that  we  believe  in  Him  and  trust  Him 
must  bring  nearer  the  full  discovery  of  Him.  And  therefore  let 
us  act  as  if  the  day  were  with  us  now,  not  doing  acts  of  darkness, 
but  putting  on  the  armor  of  light. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

None  of  these  principles  can  be  applied  to  individuals  alone. 
They  are  all  social  precepts ;  and  because  they  are  so  they  are 
those  which  most  distinctly  bear  on  the  conscience  and  heart  of 
each  member  of  a  society.  The  waking  out  of  sleep  is  surely  a 
precept  addressed  to  the  conscience  of  a  man,  if  any  ever  was ; 
but  it  is  to  the  conscience  of  a  man  perceiving  that  he  has  not 
followed  the  law  of  love,  that  he  has  been  living  separate  from 
his  brethren,  living  to  himself.     This  law  of  love  is  now  brought 


THE    EPISTLE    TO    THE    ROMANS.  2/7 

to  bear  upon  a  set  of  obviously  social  questions,  questions  con- 
cerning meats  and  drinks,  questions  about  which  a  Church  con- 
sisting of  Jews  and  Gentiles,  even  if  there  had  not  been  a  multi- 
tude of  local,  philosophical,  and   religious   divisions   in  each  of 
these  classes,  would  be  sure   to  dispute.     St.  Paul   at  once  de- 
clines to  settle  them.     If  he  had  settled  them,  there  would  have 
been  no  scope  for  the  exercise  of   the  principle,  by  which  alone 
they  could  be  really  settled.      As  long  as  any  man  believed  that 
he  could  judge  his  neighbor  in  this  matter,  so  long  the  idea  of  a 
common  Master  and   a  common   Spirit  was  feeble.     The  truth 
upon  which  the  Church  stood  must  be  imperfectly  recognized,  in 
order  that  certain  rules  and  maxims  cencerning  individual  be- 
havior might  be   dogmatically  concluded.     But  such   laws  and 
maxims  could    be  worth  nothing,   except  so   far   as  they  were 
grounded  upon  the  law  of  love  and  self-sacrifice,  and  carried  it 
out.     All  allowances,  all  self-restraints  which  interfered  with  this 
were  equally  ungodly,  and   the  conscience   of  each   man  would' 
take  vengeance  upon  him  if  he  trifled  with  the  conscience   of 
another.     A  man  must  take  good  heed  of  condemning  himself 
in  that  which  he  allows  himself.     These  beautiful  practical  ethics 
are  still  grounded  upon  the  great  sacrifice  to  which  the  Apostle 
continually  returns  :    "  Christ  pleased  not  Himself  ;  for  as  it  has 
been  written,  The  reproaches  of  them  that  reproached  Thee  fell 
upon  me." 

CHAPTERS  XV.  and  XVI. 

This  appropriation  of  the  words  of  a  Psalm  might  strike  some 
of  his  readers  as  unnatural.  Did  not  the  words  belong  to  a  Jew  ? 
Were  not  they  written  long  ago  ?  What  had  they  to  do  with  the 
Gentiles,  or  with  the  Christian  Church  ?  The  Apostle  is  led,  in 
consistency  with  all  that  he  has  said  before,  to  claim  these  Scrip- 
tures, with  the  history  and  revelation  that  they  contain,  as  be- 
longing to  the  Gentile  no  less  than  the  Jew.  Christ  came  as  the 
Minister  of  circumcision  to  confirm  the  promises  made  to  the 
fathers ;  Christ  came  to   declare   the  Gospel  to  the  Gentiles  ;  as 


278  LECTURE    II. 

the  centre  of  past,  and  present,  and  future,  as  the  foundation 
stone  of  both  Jew  and  Gentile,  the  common  root  of  the  blessings 
to  both,  all  these  words  had  their  meeting-point  in  Him  ;  the 
God  of  consolation  and  hope  was  using  them,  would  use  them 
more  and  more,  to  establish  the  patience,  and  faith,  and  hope, 
and  unity,  of  the  whole  body. 

The  Apostle  goes  on  to  speak  of  the  hope  which  he  cherished 
of  seeing  his  Roman  brethren,  whom  he  had  never  seen  yet,  of 
his  determination  to  visit  them  after  he  had  been  at  Jerusalem, 
before  he  went  to  Spain.  He  was  sure,  he  said,  that  he  should 
come  to  them  in  the  fulness  of  the  blessing  of  the  Gospel  of 
peace.  An  arrangement  strangely  defeated,  an  assurance  won 
derfuUy  fulfilled.  Before  he  could  reach  Rome  he  must  be 
mobbed  and  beaten  in  Jerusalem,  kept  under  two  successive 
Pro-Consuls  in  Caesarea,  brought  after  a  shipwreck  to  be  heard 
before  Nero.  Yet  the  prisoner  did  come  in  the  fulness  of  the 
Gospel  of  peace.  That  Gospel  spread  more  widely  from  his 
prison  through  all  churches  and  all  times  than  when  he  was  able 
to  speak  freely.  And  this  simple  statement  of  a  purpose  which 
was  to  be  frustrated,  as  far  as  his  conception  of  it  went,  to  be 
realized  in  a  better  and  diviner  way,  has  the  same  effect  as  the 
salutations  in  the  last  chapter  of  the  letter.  Like  them,  it  does 
not  suffer  us  to  forget  that  we  are  reading  the  actual  letter  of  an 
actual  man,  full  of  personal  sympathies,  expectations,  sorrows, 
joys, — who  often  saw  but  a  little  way  into  the  future  of  his  own 
life,  who  may  have  often  been  deceived  in  other  men, — while  we 
are  forced  to  confess  that  he  has  discovered  to  us  the  mystery 
of  the  divine  purpose,  the  ground  upon  which  our  right  and 
wrong,  our  thoughts,  acts,  and  hopes,  rest,  as  no  man  could  who 
had  not  a  right  to  say  that  he  was  the  Apostle  of  God  Himself, 
and  was  entrusted  with  a  Gospel  for  man. 


FIRST    EPISTLE   TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  2/9 

THE  FIRST  EPISTLE  TO  THE  CORINTHIANS. 


That  this  Epistle  refers  primarily  to  the  Unity  of  the  Church, 
and  that  all  the  questions  which  are  discussed  in  it  have  some 
relation  to  that  subject,  no  interpreter,  perhaps,  has  doubted. 
The  effort  has  been  to  ascertain  how  the  particular  circum- 
stances of  the  Church  in  Corinth  bore  upon  the  general  argu- 
ment ;  and  what  that  argument  has  to  do  with  the  allusions  to 
Wisdom,  and  the  Wisdom  of  the  world,  which  occur  so  often  in 
the  earlier  chapters. 

These  allusions  give  rise  to  the  memorable  declaration  of  the 
Apostle,  that  he  had  determined  to   know  nothing   among  the 
Corinthians  but  Jesus  Christ,  and  Him  crucified.     Hence  the  in- 
ference has  been  easy  and  natural  that   the  Corinthian  passion 
for  wisdom,  by  whomsoever  promoted,  was  at  least  a  great  mov- 
ing cause  of  their  disunion  ;  that  the  only  way  of  making  them 
one  was  to   make  them  humble ;    that  the  only  way  of  making 
them  humble  was  to  hold  up  to  them  Christ  dying  on  the  cross. 
How  this  would  operate  is  a  question  which  causes  practical  and 
serious  diversities  of  opinion.     The  pious  Romanist  would  urge 
that  the  contemplation  of  the  act  of  crucifixion,  assisted  proba- 
bly by  some  sensible  image,  has  a  special  power  of  lowering  the 
pride  of  intellect  and  the  conceits  which  divide  men  from  each 
other  ',  the  pious  Protestant  says  that  rather  the  belief  in  Christ 
as  a  perfect  Saviour,  out  of  wrath  and  sin,  from  which  a  man  has 
in  vain  sought  deliverance   by  efforts  of  his  own,  is   that  which 
empties  him  of  his  self-sufficiency.     The  second  suspects  the 
first  of  regarding  Christ  outwardly  and  carnally.     The  first  sus- 
pects the  second  of  regarding  Christ   merely  as   the  doer  of  a 
certain  work  which  is  to  be  stated  in  the  form  of   a  proposition. 
The  Protestant  complains  that  one  part  of  Christ's  work  is  to 
raise  us  above  those  visible  idolatries  which  the  Romanist  asso- 


280  LECTURE    II. 

ciates  with  his  cross.  The  Romanist  replies  that  there  can  be  no 
practical  fellowship  among  Christians,  no  message  to  the  poor, 
until  you  are  able  to  present  the  actual  Crucifixion  more  distinctly 
and  objectively.  The  history  of  Christendom  appears  to  sustain 
both  objections  j  it  equally,  I  believe,  refutes  the  uncharitable- 
ness  which  assumes  that  he  who  bows  before  a  crucifix,  or  he 
who  dwells  upon  the  cross  as  a  message  of  peace  addressed  to 
the  burdened  conscience  which  has  been  crushed  under  self- 
willed  or  prescribed  contrivances  for  obtaining' it,  may  not  be  a 
spiritual  worshipper.  Thus  one  of  the  great  instances  and 
causes  of  the  division  of  the  Church  meets  one  on  the  very 
threshold  of  the  classical  book  on  its  unity;  seems  to  be  sug- 
gested by  that  book  itself. 

If  I  sought  to  remove  this  perplexity  by  applying  the  explana- 
tion which  St.  Paul  gives  of  his  conversion  and  of  his  preaching 
to  the  Gentiles,  Romanists  and  Protestants  would  be,  perhaps, 
equally  offended.  They  would  say,  "  On  whatever  occasions 
the  Apostle  may  have  seen  it  right  to  speak  of  Christ  as  re- 
vealed in  him,  this  is  certainly  not  such  an  occasion.  The 
teachers  of  wisdom  whom  he  found,  those  who  were  drawing 
away  the  Corinthians  from  the  simplicity  of  the  Gospel,  no 
doubt  used  this  language  habitually.  They  were  mystics  ;  men 
disposed  to  substitute  inward  principles  and  apprehensions  for 
outward  facts.  The  preacher  of  Christ  and  Him  crucified,  was 
setting  himself  in  direct  antagonism  to  them  and  their  refined 
conceits.  He  was  affirming  a  fact,  calling  upon  the  Corinthians 
to  acknowledge  that,  first  of  all,  whatever  interior  illuminations 
might  be  vouchsafed  to  them  afterwards." 

The  words  of  the  Epistle,  and  all  we  know  of  the  history,  give 
great  plausibility  to  this  statement.  Apollos  was,  we  know,  an 
Alexandrian  teacher.  Though  we  may  not  suppose,  as  some 
have  done,  that  he  was  consciously  a  rival  of  St.  Paul, — one  who 
openly  taught  the  Corinthians  that  he  was  the  possessor  of  a 
deeper  and  more  advanced  lore  than  that  which  had  been  com- 
municated by  their  spiritual  father — there  can  he  little  doubt 
from  the  language  of  the  Epistle  that   this  was  the  effect  which 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  28 1 

he  produced  upon  men  already  prepared  to  rally  round  a  new- 
leader,  and  eager  to  find  pretexts  for  self-glorification.  And, 
this  being  admitted,  the  opinion  of  the  soundest  and  most  intel- 
ligent critics  that  Apollos  had  been  a  pupil  in  the  school  of 
Philo,  and  that  therefore  the  higher  lore  which  he  imparted 
would  have  especial  reference  to  the  Divine  Word  speaking  in- 
wardly to  the  heart  and  reason,  may  be  accepted  without  hesita- 
tion. Such  an  hypothesis  explains  the  character  of  at  least  one 
of  the  parties  to  which  the  Apostle  alludes,  is  in  consistency 
with  the  circumstances  of  Corinth,  throws  light  upon  a  number 
of  passages  which  without  it  are  obscure. 

In  the  teaching  of  an  Alexandrian,  educated  as  all  thoughtful 
deep-minded  Alexandrian  Jews  were,  the  Wisdom  or  the  Word 
would  be  expressions  continually  recurring.  One  mighty  in  the 
Scriptures,  like  Apollos,  would  trace  the  use  and  application  of 
them  through  the  Proverbs,  through  all  the  Prophets,  would 
probably  discover  hints  of  them  in  the  forms  and  ceremonies  of 
the  law,  even  in  the  history  of  the  early  Patriarchs.  Whatever 
impression  he  produced  on  those  of  his  hearers  who  had  fre- 
quented the  synagogue, — and  that  we  may  easily  suppose  would 
have  been  considerable, — such  discourses,  nay,  the  mere  repeti- 
tion of  language  so  identified  with  Greek  feelings,  so  much  de- 
noting the  very  object  of  Greek  inquiry,  would  come  with  the 
most  startling  force  to  those  few  cultivated  members  of  the 
Church  who  had  listened  to  arguments  in  the  Porch  or  the  Acad- 
emy. With  their  Greek  vivacity  and  passion  they  would  at  once 
attach  themselves  to  the  eloquent  man  as  to  one  who  spoke  the 
very  thing  which  their  previous  habits,  perhaps  their  previous 
struggles  of  mind,  had  led  them  to  desire  ;  who  showed  them 
that  it  could  be  reconciled  wdth  the  language  of  the  sacred  book, 
now  no  more  merely  a  book  for  the  Hebrew  and  the  circumcised, 
— who  pointed  out  evident  links  of  association  between  it  and 
the  most  interior  part  of  the  New  Testament  revelation.  Many 
of  those  who  only  belonged  to  the  crowd,  and  would  never  have 
been  admitted  into  the  halls  of  philosophy,  but  who  were  still 
Greeks,  who  had  been  used  to  exercise  their  faculties  of  obser- 


282  LECTURE    II. 

vation  and  criticism  in  judging  of  theatrical  compositions,  who 
had  travelled  and  picked  up  a  number  of  scattered  thoughts  and 
speculations,  all  whose  powers  of  reflection  had  been  awakened 
to  fresh  life  and  directed  to  the  highest  objects  by  the  Gospel, 
would  claim  their  privilege  also  to  follow  the  teacher  when  he 
spoke  of  mysteries  which,  as  Corinthians,  they  had  desired  to 
know,  into  which,  as  Christians,  they  might  claim  to  be  initiated. 
It  seems  to  me  beyond  all  question  that  the  Apollos  party  in 
the  Corinthian  Church  was  formed  in  this  way,  and  that  this  was 
the  cTiaracter  which  it  must  have  habitually  assumed.  And  I 
am  far  from  denying — the  language  of  the  first  four  or  five 
chapters  almost  justifies  us  in  affirming — that  this  was  the  party 
against  which  the  others  whereof  St.  Paul  speaks  were  protesting. 
A  school  which  exalted  spiritual  intuitions,  an  internal  guide,  as 
the  Alexandrian  school  was  wont  to  do,  and  which  appealed,  as 
they  did,  to  the  Old  Testament,  would  naturally  call  forth  the 
opposition  of  those  Jewish  Christians  who  had  been  brought  up 
under  the  Pharisees,  and  who  had  received  Jesus  as  fulfiling  the 
Law  and  the  Prophets,  taken  in  their  obvious  historical  sense. 
These  would  call  themselves  after  the  name  of  Peter,  if  not 
at  first,  yet  as  soon  as  they  had  evoked  a  third  party  which  set 
up  the  New  Testament  as  the  express  and  definite  message  of 
salvation  to  the  Gentiles — at  once  against  their  literal  Judaism, 
and  against  the  spiritual  Judaism  of  the  Alexandrians.  The 
name  of  Paul  would  be  equally  a  plea  for  saying  :  The  Old 
Covenant,  to  which  you  followers  of  Cephas  seem  to  be  leading 
us  back,  is  abrogated  ;  we  are  not  under  the  Law :  Christ  has 
come  to  fulfil  the  promises  to  the  Gentiles — most  of  all,  to  bestow 
the  Spirit  upon  us.  Why  then  do  )ou  followers  of  Apollos  take 
us  back  to  the  ideas  and  allegories  of  the  old  time  ?  That  there 
should  be  a  fourth  class  pretending  to  despise  all  human  and 
secondary  teaching,  to  cast  aside  the  wisdom  of  Apollos,  the 
dogmatism  of  the  Cephasites,  even  the  liberty  of  Paul,  and 
to  adhere  simply  to  the  words  of  Christ  himself,  we  might  easily 
conclude,  if  we  had  not  a  clear  intimaJ:ion  of  the  fact  in  the 
Epistle  itself. 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  283 

It  being  admitted  then  that  the  primary  danger  to  the  Corin- 
thians at  this  time  lay  in  the  Apollos  school,  and  that  the  formal 
development  of  the  others  may  have  been  owing  to  the  rise 
of  this,  the  question  to  be  considered  is,  how  St.  Paul  met  that 
danger,  and  how  far  his  manner  of  treating  it  was  effectual  for 
healing  the  schisms  in  the  Church  generally. 

There  is  no  question  about  the  preaching  of  Christ  crucified ; 
that,  we  are  all  agreed,  was  his  method  ;  his  words  are  too 
distinct  and  emphatic  to  be  gainsaid.  But  as  there  is  a  dispute 
what  these  words  denote,  what  the  preaching  of  Christ  crucified 
in  his  sense  of  it  was,  we  had  better  seek  for  some  statement  of 
his  own  on  the  subject  which  may  carry  us  beyond  the  mere 
phrase.  I  find  one  in  the  first  chapter  :  "  For  the  Jews  require 
a  sign,  and  the  Greeks  seek  after  wisdom.  But  we  preach 
Christ  crucified,  to  the  Jews  a  stumbling-block,  and  to  the  Greeks 
foolishness  :  but  unto  them  which  are  called,  both  Jews  and 
Greeks,  Christ  the  Wisdom  of  God,  and  the  Power  of  God." 
All  will  agree  that  this  is  a  cardinal  passage,  one  to  which 
we  may  well  refer  as  determining  the  sense  of  others  ;  one  which 
indirectly  introduces  the  whole  doctrine  of  the  Cross.  What 
does  St.  Paul  say  in  it  ?  We  have  here  the  favorite  words  of  the 
Apollos  school ;  Wisdom  and  Power.  It  is  the  So<p(a  of  God, 
the  inner  Aw^diuq  of  God,  which  St.  Paul  purposes  to  declare  to 
the  Corinthians  ;  only  he  says,  God  has  declared  them  more  per- 
fectly than  all  my  fine  discourses  can.  The  Cross  of  Christ  is 
the  manifestation  of  both.  Because  the  foolishness  of  God,  he 
goes  on  in  his  bold  way,  is  wiser  than  man,  and  the  weakness  of 
God  is  stronger  than  man.  You  say  there  is  a  Word,  or  Wisdom  ; 
a  Living  Word  ;  Wisdom  which  is  the  expression  of  God  Himself. 
I  confess  it.  And  I  say  that  living  Word  has  come  forth  and 
spoken.  That  Word  has  proved  Himself  to  be  living  by  acting, 
suffering, — mightiest  wonder  of  all, — by  dying;  that  Word  or 
Wisdom  has  proved  Himself  in  this  act  of  dying  to  be  the 
expression  of  God  ;  for  in  his  death  has  come  forth  the  very 
innermost  meaning  of  God's  character,  His  essential  love  ;  yea, 
and  his  essential  power. 


284  LECTURE    II. 

It  is  a  mighty,  startling  proposition ;  but  herein  lay  St.  Paul's 
Gospel.  It  had  pleased  God  to  reveal  His  Son  in  him  that  he 
might  preach  Him  among  the  Gentiles,  who  had  struggled  with 
him  long,  against  whom  he  had  been  kicking,  who  had  shown 
Himself  to  be  the  master  ;  his  spirit  had  bowed  to  Him  as  its 
Lord  ;  he  had  asked  what  he  was  to  do.  The  answer  had  come 
that  he  was  to  publish  this  Lord  to  all  men  as  their  Lord,  to  tell 
all  men  that  he  was  with  them,  and  was  claiming  their  submis- 
sion. But  was  he  testifying  of  an  unknown  teacher ;  one  who 
had  never  yet  shown  what  he  was,  who  was  only  speaking  in  the 
secret  depths  of  the  individual  heart  ?  If  it  had  been  so,  his 
message  might  have  been  to  a  few  elect  spirits,  such  as  Philo 
talked  of ;  initiated  men  who  forsook  the  vulgar  herd,  and  pur- 
sued the  divine  Wisdom.  But  it  could  not  have  been  to  the 
Gentile,  to  men,  to  the  world.  Only  if  this  Word  had  revealed 
Himself  by  human  acts  ;  by  acts  done  on  this  earth ;  by  acts 
open,  apparent;  by  bodil}^,  physical,  mortal  acts,  such  as  the 
delicate  Alexandrian  Theosophist  did  not  like  to  dwell  on  or 
meddle  with  ;  only  then  could  St.  Paul  fulfil  the  commission 
which  he  had  received ;  only  then  could  he  really  set  forth  that 
dominion  of  the  spiritual  power  over  the  fleshly,  of  the  divine, 
and  mysterious,  and  inward,  over  the  human,  and  outward,  and 
tangible,  w^hich  the  Alexandrian  boasted  of.  They  must  not 
stand  aloof  from  each  other;  they  must  come  into  conflict,  if  the 
strength  of  each  is  to  be  proved. 

This  preaching  of  the  Cross,  as  God's  manifestation  of  His 
own  Wisdom  and  Righteousness,  is  neither  the  Romanist  nor  the 
Protestant  preaching,  as  they  stand  out  in  opposition  to  each 
other.  It  does  not  appeal  to  the  senses,  or  to  the  intellect  pri- 
marily ;  it  goes  to  a  region  deeper  than  both.  But  it  does  justice 
both  to  the  Romanist  and  to  the  Protestant  method  ;  it  explains 
their  relation  to  each  other,  and  why  each  is  by  itself  unsatis- 
factory. The  sensible  image  corresponds  to  the  spiritual  reality. 
Christ  Himself  must  be  as  actually  an  object  to  the  spiritual 
organ  as  the  Crucifix  is  to  the  outward  eye.  The  forms  of  sense 
are  therefore  the  best,  nay,  if  we  follow  Scripture,  the  only  forms 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  285 

which  can  express  spiritual  truths  ;  all  attempts  to  translate  them 
into    intellectual  propositions  weaken    their  force.     But  on  the 
other  hand,  the  longing  of  men  for  deliverance  from  mere  sensi- 
ble  material  things,  from  idols,  is  a  most  genuine  longing,  one 
which    the   true    preacher    seeks    to    awaken.     It  is  connected, 
though  it  must  not  be  identified,  with  the  longing  for  deliverance 
from'' moral  evil.     That  arises  when  the  man  is  conscious  that 
he  himself  is  his  tormentor,  that  he  has  bowed  to  outward  things 
because    he    has    wandered    from    some    higher    centre.     The 
announcement  of  that  spiritual  centre,— the  preaching  of  Christ 
as  the   power  which  is  attracting  him  and  all  creatures  to  itself, 
withdrawing  them  from  the  material  idols  which  have  kept  them 
apart,  raising  them  out  of  themselves,— fulfils  both  purposes.     It 
is  not   a  charm,  or  mesmeric   influence,  produced  upon  the  out- 
ward man;  it  is  not  a  formal  proposition,  to  be  comprehended 
bv  the  understanding  ;  it  is  a  message  to  that   which  is  most 
human,  most  universal  in  the  man  concerning  Him  in  whom  only 
that  which  is  human  and  universal  can  be  realized,  can  over- 
come that  which  is  partial  and  warring. 

We   thus  are   able  to  understand  the  course   of  the  Apostle's 
thoughts.     He  finds  the  Corinthians  full  of  good  gifts,  deficient 
in   none.     But   there    are     divisions    among   them.     They   are 
ranged  in  parties,  under  leaders.     What  does  this  mean  ?    They 
are'paulites !    What,  were  they  baptized  into  the  name  of  Paul  ? 
He  thanks  God  he  baptized  very  few  of  them,  lest  they  should 
think  he  baptized  them  into  his  name.     He  was  sent  to  preach 
the  Gospel,  to  exhibit  Him  who  was  the  Wisdom  and  Bower  of 
God   to   tell  not  the  wise,  or  mighty,  but  all,  the  most  despised 
and 'foolish:  "Ye  are  called  of   God,  Christ  is  made  unto  you 
wisdom   and  righteousness,  and  santification,  and  redemption." 
He  had  proclaimed  a  common  foundation  for  them  all  to  rest 
upon-a  human  and  Divine  foundation.     And  they,  instead  of 
resting  upon  it,  are  setting  up  a  set  of  separate  teachers   are 
making  Christ  a  minister  of  division  ;   as  if  he  came  to  establish 
factions,  not  as  the  Lord  of  Man. 


286  LECTURE   II. 


CHAPTER  II. 

This  Gospel  Paul  had  resolved  to  preach  as  broadly,  as 
simply  as  possible.  He  had  set  forth  Christ,  and  Him  crucified, 
to  all.  He  would  not  have  their  faith  stand  in  his  words  or 
wisdom,  but  in  God's  power.  But  was  he  then  not  preaching  a 
mystery.?  Was  he  not  preaching  the  wisdom  of  God  ?  Assuredly 
this  was-  a  very  profound  mystery,  one  which  the  learned  rabbis 
of  the  Jews,  and  the  Roman  rulers  of  the  earth,  were  equally 
unable  to  penetrate,  or  they  would  not  have  crucified  the  Kipg 
of  Men,  the  Lord  of  Glory.  It  was  a  mystery  which  it  required 
a  Divine  light  to  reveal.  Eye  had  not  seen,  ear  had  not  heard, 
the  things  which  God  had  prepared  for  them  that  love  him. 
But  God  had  revealed  them  by  His  Spirit.  None  can  make  us 
know  God'  but  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  even  as  none  can  know  what 
is  in  a  man  but  the  spirit  of  man.  And  this  spiritual  revelation 
the  mere  psychical  or  natural  man  does  not  receive  ;  there  must 
be  a  spiritual  organ  to  receive  a  spiritual  communication. 

Here  St.  Paul  touches  the  very  heart  of  the  Alexandrian 
teaching.  Does  he  refute  it  .'*  No !  he  adopts  the  very  prin- 
ciple, nay,  the  very  terms  of  it.  You  say  there  is  a  mystery  to 
be  known.  Certainly.  By  the  initiated  ?  Certainly.  By  the 
spiritual  organ,  not  the  mere  v''^/^/  ?  Certainly.  You  say  the 
spiritual  man  is  above  other  men  ?  Certainly. — Where  then  do 
we  diffA^  ?  Only  when  you  would  make  the  mystery  not  an 
eternal,  universal  reality,  but  some  apprehension  of  partic- 
ular men.  Only  when  you  make  the  initiated  a  peculiar  set 
of  wise  or  spiritual  men,  and  not  those  who  are  content  to  give 
up  their  wisdom  that  they  may  be  taught  to  see  what  is  true  for 
them  and  for  all.  Only  when  you  make  the  spiritual  organ  not 
an  open  eye  to  receive  God's  light  which  flows  forth  for  all ;  but 
a  peculiar  organ  in  which  peculiar  men  may  glory.  Only  when 
the  spiritual  man,  in  fact,  becomes  the  carnal,  the  natural,  psy- 
chical man  j    for   that  he  does   become  when  he  glorifies  his 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.         '         287 

individual  soul  ;  his  separate  wisdom   above  the  wisdom  ;  the 
Divine  wisdom  which  is  for  man. 

St.  Paul  applies  the  words,  "  Who  hath  known  the  mind  of 
the  Lord,  that  he  might  instruct  Him  ?  "  to  this  case.  Who  can 
measure  God's  acts  and  thoughts  by  the  standard  of  his  own 
narrow  soul  ?  What  an  utter  contradiction  is  implied  in  the  par- 
tial, the  individual,  comprehending  the  Universal !  But  is  the 
knowledge  of  God  therefore  impossible  ?  Has  it  been  a  dream 
of  the  Philo  school,  of  all  the  philosophers  with  whom  that  school 
had  sympathy,  that  they  proposed  this  to  themselves  as  the  end 
of  their  seeking  ?  "  No,"  he  answers ;  "  we  have  the  mind  of 
Christ.  We  are  not  tied  to  the  measures  and  standards  of  the 
individual  soul.  The  mind  which  formed  all  things,  by  which 
all  things  consist,  is  with  us.  Christ  is  in  us  ;  we  may  know 
Him  if  we  will  give  up  ourselves." 


CHAPTER  HI. 

He  proceeds  to  strike  a  very  hard  blow  at  the  Alexandrian 
conceit,  even  while  he  recognizes  one  of  the  Alexandrian  dis- 
tinctions. "  I  have  fed  you,"  he  says,  "  with  milk,  and  not  with 
meat."  "Oh!"  they  exclaim,  "  then  you  accept  our  division 
of  the  novices  and  the  adepts,  of  those  who  must  receive  truth  in 
sensual  forms,  and  those  who  can  receive  it  in  its  pure  essence." 
Stay  a  moment. — It  is  to  you  the  adepts,  the  aspirants  after  celes- 
tial illumination,  to  you  who  could  not  bear  the  vulgar  herd 
of  ordinary  men,  who  thought  you  had  a  special  discern- 
ment of  spiritual  mysteries — it  is  to  you  I  have  administered  this 
food  of  children.  It  is  what  you  want.  It  is  the  only  thing  you 
can  bear ;  for  I  must  tell  you  plainly.  You  are  not  what  you 
fancy  yourselves.  You  are  not  spiritual  men.  You  are  emphati- 
cally carnal  men  ;  for  division  is  the  sign  of  carnality.  Self- 
exaltation  is  the  sign  of  carnality.  As  long  as  you  are  setting 
up  earthly  teachers  you  must  be  carnal  men.  What  are  those 
teachfrs  ?    What  are  they  sent  to  do  t   They  are  messengers  who 


288  LECTURE    II. 

are  to  build  you  up  as  a  Church  upon  the  only  foundation  upon 
which  human  beings  can  stand.  Fcrr  othe?-  foundation  can  no 
man  lay  than  that  is  laid,  which  is  Jesus  Christ.  Here  is  the 
great  doctrine  of  the  Epistle  ;  here  is  the  condemnation  of 
Paulites,  Apollosites,  Cephasites.  Here  is  the  justification  of  all 
three.  Here  is  the  ground  of  Church  unity.  The  foundation  is 
laid.  Christ  is  at  the  root  of  humanity.  The  preaching  of 
Apollos,  the  preaching  of  Paul,  can  but  declare  things  as  they 
are,  cannot  change  facts  in  the  least.  We  may  proclaim — it  is 
our  calling  to  proclaim — the  great  Law  and  Order  of  the  Uni- 
verse. He  or  I  may  proclaim  it  best.  God  will  judge  of  that. 
We  may  put  very  precious  things  on  this  foundation,  or  very 
worthless  things.  Whatever  we  have  put  upon  it  will  be  tried  by 
fire.  We  shall  be  tried  by  fire  But  the  foundation  will 
remain.  And  you  will  remain.  For  you,  and  not  our  notions, 
are  the  building  which  God  is  erecting  on  this  foundation.  You 
are  the  temple  of  God.  If  we  defile  that  temple  God  will 
destroy  us.  And  therefore,  if  you  have  a  right  view  of  your 
own  glory,  you  will  give  up  glorying  altogether  in  your  wisdom 
and  in  your  party-leaders.  All  things  are  yours, — life,  death, 
things  present,  things  to  come  ;  Apollos,  Cephas,  Paul,  all 
nature,  all  men.     For  you  are  Christ's,  and  Christ  is  God's. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

"  What  are  we,"  he  goes  on,  "  Apollos  and  I,  whom  you  have 
been  making  into  heads  of  parties,  and  so  destroyers  of  Christ's 
Church  1  Servants  of  Christ,  existing  to  testify  of  Him  as  the 
great  Master ;  stewards  of  the  mysteries  of  God,  appointed 
to  make  the  whole  household  sharers  in  the  deep  truths  which 
lie  beneath  us  all.  We  are  stewards  for  you  ;  but  you  are  not 
judges  whether  we  discharge  our  office  faithfully  or  not.  God 
will  judge  us.  His  Light  will  burst  in  upon  us,  and  that  revela- 
tion will  show  what  every  one  of  us  is,  and  what  he  has  been 
doing.     You  cannot  judge  us  ;  we  cannot  judge  ourselves.     Our 


FIKST    EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  289 

consciences  may  not  reproach  us  with  unfaithfulness,  but  that  is 
not  our  justification.  Give  up  therefore  this  miserable  attempt 
to  exercise  a  power  which  you  are  not  endowed  with,  which  is 
dividing  you  from  each  other,  which  is  setting  up  each  against 
the  other."  Here  the  Apostle  lays  bare  their  deepest  wound. 
He  does  it  gently,  lovingly,  even  with  humor  ;  but  he  cuts  fear- 
lessly;  his  ridicule  wonderfully  combines  inward  affection  and 
outward  courtesy  with  sharpness  and  severity.  You  Corinthians 
have  become  wise,  great  men,  judges  and  kings.  Would  we 
could  share  your  exaltation  !  Would  we  could  sit  with  you  on 
your  high  judgment-throne  !  But  that  is  not  our  vocation.  We 
apostles  must  be  God's  outcast,  the  offscouring  of  the  earth. 
This  is  what  God  has  appointed  for  us.  I  sometimes  think 
he  means  to  use  us  as  the  Romans  use  the  criminals  in  the 
amphitheatre,  whom  they  bring  out  when  the  best  part  of 
the  amusement  is  over,  merely  that  the  wild  beasts  may  devour 
them.  St.  Paul  feels  that  he  has  said  bitter  words  ;  such  a  con- 
trast between  the  self-conceited  pupils  and  those  whom  they 
pretend  to  make  their  guides,  must  have  been  felt  by  all  of  them 
who  were  not  quite  besotted  with  intellectual  or  spiritual  pride. 
But  he  claims  the  right  of  a  father  to  speak  to  his  children; 
whatever  other  instructors  they  may  have,  that  is  his  title.  He 
does  not  want  the  dignity  of  a  sophist  or  a  leader.  That  he 
disclaims  as  inconsistent  with  the  Gospel  he  has  preached ;  with 
the  very  existence  of  the  Church  :  the  other  he  claims  because 
he  has  preached  the  Gospel,  because  the  Church  has  need 
of  paternal  government,  and  cannot  dispense  with  the  most 
strict  exercise  of  it. 


CHAPTER  V. 

An  instance  occurs  immediately  in  which  the  Apostle,  though 
absent,  asserts,  and  uses  this  power.  The  passage  is  as  impor- 
tant as  any  in  the  Epistle,  important  for  its  own  sake,  and  for  the 
elucidation  of  the  general  subject.     This  Church,  which  was  so 

^9 


290  LECTURE    II. 

proud  of  its  spiritual  illumination,  had  among  its  members,  one 
who  had  committed  fornication  with  his  father's  wife.  Nothing 
had  been  done  to  remove  the  offender  from  the  communion  of 
the  Church.  St.  Paul  pronounces  his  sentence  in  a  dreadful 
formula.  In  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  members  of 
the  Church  being  gathered  together,  and  he  being  in  Spirit  pres- 
ent among  them,  with  the  power  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
he  decrees  that  a  man  who  has  committed  a  crime  of  this  kind 
be  delivered  to  Satan  for  the  destruction  of  his  flesh,  that  his 
spirit  may  be  saved  in  the  day  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 

This  is  undoubtedly //^^  formula  of  excommunication.  Modern 
Protestaots  know  not  what  to  make  of  such  a  decree.  It  cannot 
mean  exactly  what  it  says.  It  must  be  merely  a  phrase  to 
express  the  exclusion  of  a  man  from  the  fellowship  of  believers. 
Romanists  say,  What  is  there  in  the  anathemas  of  which  you 
accuse  the  middle  ages,  in  the  curses  which  Irish  priests  pro- 
nounce at  the  altar,  that  goes  beyond  this  ?  To  the  first,  I  answer, 
Certainly,  the  phrase  means  exclusion  from  the  fellowship  of  the 
Church  ;  but  what  does  that  mean  ?  St.  Paul  might  have  said.  Do 
not  let  him  partake  of  the  Eucharist,  or,  Have  no  familiar  inter- 
course with  him.  Why  talk  about  Satan,  and  delivering  to 
Satan,  if  the  words  signify  nothing.^  Are  they  words  to  play 
with  ?  The  Corinthians  were  all  too  fond  of  rhetoric  ;  St.  Paul 
had  solemnly  pronounced  it  unsuitable  to  the  herald  of  a  great 
Truth.  Was  this  just  the  moment  to  forget  his  rule  ?  I  appre- 
hend we  cannot  evade  the  conclusion,  that  he  looked  upon  the 
Gospel  as  the  proclamation  of  a  deliverance  from  devil-worship, 
devil-service  :  that  he  looked  upon  the  Church  as  a  body  of  men 
united  in  the  confession  of  Him  who  had  come  to  destroy  the 
works  of  the  devil.  Any  act  which  implied  a  distinct  renuncia- 
tion of  Christ  the  righteous  Lord,  a  distinct  assertion  of  fleshly 
self-will,  implied  also  the  choice  of  the  devil  as  a  master;  it  was 
an  act  of  surrender  to  him.  And  this  surrender  may  be  of  such 
a  broad  obvious  kind  as  to  make  it  the  duty  of  the  Church  to 
deal  with  its  member  as  if  he  were  that  which  he  chose  to  be. 
For  his   own  sake  this  was   necessary.     To  treat  him  as  an  out- 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  29I 

cast  was  the  best  way  of  really  keeping  him  in  the  unity  of  the 
Church.  Let  him  be  delivered  to  Satan  for  the  punishment 
of  his  flesh,  that  his  spirit  may  be  saved  in  the  day  of  the  Lord. 
I  cannot  dilute  or  explain  away  words  which  seem  to  me  to  con- 
tain the  very  essence  of  Christian  philosophy  and  Christian 
benevolence.  If  priests  had  studied  them  and  laid  them  to 
heart,  how  impossible  it  would  have  been  for  them  to  sport  with 
curses  as  they  have  done  !  For  the  truth  must  be  spoken  plainly. 
Whatever  they  have  pretended,  their  deliverance  of  a  man  to 
Satan  has  not  been  the  last  awful  reluctant  declaration,  that 
a  man  who  has  wilfully  chosen  an  evil  master  shall  feel  the 
bondage  that  he  may  loathe  it,  and  so  turn  to  his  true  Lord  that 
he  may  find  here,  or  hereafter,  the  emancipation  which  he  came 
upon  earth  and  went  down  into  hell,  to  effect.  The  priest's 
malediction  has,  in  innumerable  cases,  been  an  invocation  or 
prayer  to  the  devil  as  the  real  and  only  God  whom  he  wor- 
shipped, to  punish  the  enemies  whom  he  hated,  and  of  whom  he 
wished  to  rid  himself. 

The  law  of  excommunication,  as  far  as  it  regards  the  sufferer, 
is  clearly  expounded  in  these  remarkable  sentences.  The  ground 
of  excommunication,  as  it  regards  the  Church,  is  exhibited  in  the 
next  verses :  "  A  little  leaven  leaveneth  the  whole  lump." 
"  Christ  our  Passover  is  sacrificed  for  us."  "  Ye  are  un- 
leavened." Here  are  texts  of  mighty  subjects  :  the  history  of 
the  Church  is  nothing  but  the  expansion  and  illustration  of  them. 
The  glorying  of  the  Corinthians,  as  we  have  seen  already,  did 
not  imply  a  high  estimate  of  their  position  as  Churchmen  ;  they 
exulted  in  their  individual  wisdom  ;  right  views  and  high  intuitions 
were  boasted  of  by  one  man  or  one  party  as  an  exclusive  property. 
To  set  before  the  Church,  as  a  Church,  its  sanctity,  its  dignity,  is 
the  Apostle's  method  of  correcting  this  tendency.  Ye  are  a  holy 
body  ;  a  body  from  which  the  leaven  has  been  cast  out.  The 
pure  Paschal  Lamb  has  been  sacrificed  for  you.  In  Him  you 
are  perfectly  pure  and  holy.  Impurity  comes  in  with  separation  ; 
with  men  choosing  to  have  a  way  of  their  own,  choosing  to 
break  loose  from  the  law  and  principle  of  the  divine  fellowship. 


292  LECTURE    II. 

That  is  the  leaven  ;  the  leaven  of  self-will,  self-pleasing,  which 
Christ  seeks  to  cast  out,  and  which  when  we  come  as  a  united 
body  to  the  feast  we  seek  to  have  cast  out.  Where  this  selfish 
principle  has  reached  a  head,  has  put  itself  forth  in  some  flagrant 
overt  act,  like  that  of  the  man  who  has  committed  fornication 
with  his  father's  wife,  the  holiness  of  the  body  must  be  asserted 
by  the  exision  of  the  particular  member  :  a  doctrine  involved  in 
the  very  existence  of  a  Church,  but  which  may  be  put  forward 
with  such  prominence  as  to  destroy  the  truth  from  which  it 
springs.  Excommunication  may  be  contemplated  apart  from 
communion.  It  may  be  fancied  that  a  Church  is  a  set  of  per- 
sons possessing  certain  special  qualifications  of  faith  or  holiness, 
and  that  all  are  to  be  prevented  from  participating  in  its  ordi- 
nances who  cannot  prove  that  they  possess  these  qualifications. 
Thus  excommunication  will  become  the  rule,  and  the  reason  on 
which  St.  Paul  bases  it  is  no  longer  tenable  ;  nay,  is  directly  set 
at  nought.  The  body  is  not  pure  in  itself  from  its  relation  to 
Christ ;  but  pure  from  the  apprehensions,  graces,  gifts,  of  those 
who  belong  to  it.  Hence  an  opening  to  all  the  pride,  spirit 
of  judging,  hypocrisy  and  immorality  which  St.  Paul  saw  with 
such  trembling  at  Corinth. 

In  the  next  sentences  of  the  chapter  he  strikes  at  another  form 
of  these  evils.  He  had  bidden  them  avoid  fornicators,  covetous 
men,  extortioners,  idolaters.  The  exhortation  might  be,  no 
doubt  had  been,  misunderstood  and  turned  to  mischief.  They 
had  not  actually  stood  aloof  from  such  persons  ;  they  could  not ; 
all  intercourse  with  society  would  have  been  at  an  end  if  they 
had,  all  power  of  benefiting  it.  But  they  could  judge  and 
despise  the  heathens  even  while  they  mixed  among  them  ;  they 
could  count  themselves  pure,  at  least  in  comparison  with  them. 
Did  they?  then  let  them  see  that  they  were  pure.  What  had 
they  to  do  with  judging  the  heathen  ?  Who  gave  them  such 
a  commission  ?  How  did  they  know  how  much  evil  entered  into 
the  fornication  or  extortion  of  an  idolater  ?  But  they  were  wit- 
nesses and  protestants  for  the  existence  of  a  righteous  society  in 
which  men  loved  their  neighbors,  and  therefore  could  not  defile 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  293 

or  hurt  them.     Let  them  keep  that  body  to  its   office.     God  will 
judge  the  outlying  world. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Every  Greek  characteristic  reappeared,  as  it  was  sure  to  do, 
in  the  Church  ;  the  love  of  litigation  could  not  be  absent.  No 
more  formal  contradiction  of  the  nature  and  profession  of  a 
Church  could  well  be  exhibited  in  the  sight  of  the  heathens  than 
that  of  brother  going  to  law  with  brother.  Whence  came  it  ? 
From  the  same  cause  as  the  parties  and  the  glorification  of  in- 
dividual gifts.  The  feeling  of  brotherhood  was  not  realized 
among  them  ;  they  would  not  understand  the  functions  of  a 
spiritual  body  ;  they  w^ere  merely  acting  like  a  set  of  atoms  ac- 
cidentally associated.  To  make  them  conscious  of  the  greatness 
of  their  position  as  a  body,  is  here,  as  always,  the  means  of 
crushing  their  conceit  as  individuals.  What,  he  says,  you  must 
go  to  heathens  to  judge  little  matters  about  property  !  Do  you 
not  know  that  the  saints  shall  judge  the  world  ?  How  could  St. 
Paul  take  it  for  granted  that  they  knew  this  ?  Had  he  told  them 
so  in  any  part  of  his  preaching  which  we  do  not  possess  ?  Had 
it  been  a  matter  of  special  revelation  to  him  and  them  ?  I  ap- 
prehend that  he  could  not  have  given  this  form  to  the  question 
if  he  had  not  meant  them  to  understand  that  such  a  function  was 
implied  in  the  very  nature  of  a  spiritual  society.  "  The  spiritual 
man,"  he  had  said,  "  judgeth  all  things  ;  but  he  himself  is  judged 
of  no  man."  When  we  are  raised  to  a  higher  ground  we  have 
power  of  overlooking  and  comparing  that  which  lies  below. 
When  we  really  see  all  things  in  God's  light,  and  are  partakers 
of  his  mind — the  fleshly  temper  which  bewilders  our  perceptions 
and  makes  our  decisions  partial,  being  overcome, — then  we  must 
exercise  in  its  fullest  measure  that  wonderful  discernment  with 
portions  of  which  the  humble  and  meek  who  forget  themselves 
are  endued  here. 

The  want  of  this  power  of  judging  arose   in   the   case  of  the 


294  LECTURE    II. 

Corinthians  from  no  intellectual  defect — strictly  so  called.  They 
came  behind  in  no  gift.  It  came  from  intellectual  pride.  And 
yet  see  how  that  pride  punished  itself ;  what  practical  feebleness, 
what  confessed  incapacity  was  the  fruit  of  it.  They  actually 
cou»d  not  find  persons  competent  to  pronounce  judgment  in  little 
disputes  of  property  which  arose  among  their  own  members. 
What !  they  with  their  great  illumination,  their  high  intuitions, 
had  not  a  class  of  men  endued  with  this  inferior  species  of  saga^ 
ity!  The  sarcasm  is  bitter ;  the  Corinthian  must  have  felt  it. 
But  what  an  insight  is  given  us  into  the  mind  of  the  Apostle 
and  his  view  of  the  Church !  The  high  gifts  and  the  low  were 
equally  bestowed  by  the  eternal  Spirit.  Prudence  dwells  with 
wisdom.  A  power  of  dealing  with  the  pettiest  details  of  life  is 
just  as  much  a  divine  endowment,  just  as  necessary  to  a  divine 
society,  as  the  apprehension  of  spiritual  truths. 

The  existence  of  these  lawsuits  did  not,  however,  reveal  merely 
the  ignorance  of  the  Corinthians;  it  showed  a  positive  moral 
defect.  How  was  it  that  they  could  not  bear  wrongs  one  from 
another  ?  How  was  it  that  they  committed  wrongs  one  against 
another  ?  Did  they  not  know  that  the  Gospel  was  a  message  of 
deliverance,  of  purgation  from  moral  evils  ?  Did  they  not  know 
that  these  were  thehinderances — the  absolutely  fatal  hinderances 
— to  their  living  in  God's  kingdom,  to  their  enjoying  its  treas- 
ures ?  No  !  this  simple  truth  was  just  the  one  which  they  had 
not  entered  into,  which  had  need  to  be  repeated  in  their  ears. 
They  were  too  fine,  too  spiritual,  to  think  about  gross  outward 
evils  or  detestable  habits  of  mind  and  character.  They  were 
carried  into  a  higher  region  ;  all  high  and  divine  mysteries  were 
unfolded  to  their  gaze.  And  in  the  mean  time,  while  they  were 
entertaining  themselves  with  these,  they  were  quite  forgetting 
that  low  grovelling  sensualism  in  which  they  had  once  been 
plunged ;  they  were  forgetting  that  all  the  temptations  and 
motives  to  it  were  just  as  strong  in  them  now  as  they  had  ever 
been.  They  had  been  washed,  they  had  been  sanctified  :  while 
they  claimed  their  relation  to  Christ,  their  membership  in  him, 
all   these   moral    corruptions,  inward   and  outward,  were   as  far 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  295 

from  them  as  the  east  from  the  west.  But  they  were  never  far  from 
the  fleshly  heart,  from  the  mere  earthly  nature.  They  were 
continually  creeping  about  each  of  them,  ready  to  start  up 
and  assert  their  dominion.  See  how  covetousness,  envy,  strife, 
were  invading  them  !  "  What !  "  some  one  of  the  Paulites  would 
exclaim,  "  are  you — the  preacher  of  Christian  liberty,  of  faith 
which  raises  us  above  law — become  a  mere  moralist  ?  are  you 
going  to  tell  us  of  this  thing  and  that  which  we  must  not  touch, 
or  taste,  or  handle,  lest  we  should  be  defiled  ?  I  am  going  to  do 
no  such  thing,  he  says.  I  jtell  you,  as  I  have  told  you  before,  all 
things  are  lawful  to  me.  God  has  given  us  the  earth  to  enjoy. 
He  has  given  us  the  appetites  and  senses  wherewith  to  enjoy  it. 
But  he  has  not  given  us  the  earth  to  be  our  master.  He  has  not 
given  us  our  appetites  and  senses  to  be  our  masters.  And  there- 
fore if  these  are  acquiring  power  over  me,  they  are  destroying 
that  liberty  which  God  has  given  me.  The  belly,  and  the  meats 
which  feed  the  belly,  are  both  good  ;  but  I  am  not  to  be  a  servant 
to  either.  God  will  destroy  them,  and  means  me  to  live  on.  A 
plain  statement,  very  commonplace  and  vulgar  doubtless,  in  the 
judgments  of  many  of  the  Apollos  as  well  of  the  Pauline  party ; 
but  also  exceedingly  needful  for  both.  It  is  a  distinction  ever- 
lastingly fresh  and  vital,  one  which  finds  new  applications  for  it- 
self, and  bitter  experiences  to  confirm  the  application,  every  day 
and  hour  of  our  lives.  It  is  the  text  to  the  great  subject  of 
Christian  liberty  upon  which  St.  Paul  will  speak  more  at  large 
hereafter.  Perhaps  we  shall  find  that  he  offers  some  most  valu- 
able illustrations  of  the  principle  at  once  in  reference  to  a  sub- 
ject of  which  he  had  already  spoken,  and  to  some  topics 
respecting  which  the  Corinthians  had  consulted  him. 

Every  one,  I  suppose,  has  at  times  been  troubled  by  the  ques- 
tion. Why  did  the  Apostles  and  Elders  at  Jerusalem,  in  the  rules 
which  they  drew  up  for  the  guidance  of  the  Gentile  converts,  mix 
up  the  prohibition  of  a  moral  evil  with  positive  precepts  which 
were  intended  only  for  a  certain  period  and  a  particular  state  of 
society  ?  Various  answers  have  been  given  ;  three  which  are  of 
great  weight.     The  first  is,  that  fornication   was  so  closely  con- 


296  LECTURE    II. 

nected  with  idolatry,  and  became  in  certain  festivals  and  services 
so  much  a  part  of  religion,  that  the  prohibition  of  contact  with 
idolatrous  offerings  was  a  protection  against  the  moral  trans- 
gression, and,  at  the  same  time,  pointed  out  the  inward  root  of 
it.  The  second  is,  that  men  brought  under  a  spiritual  govern- 
ment, and  exempted  from  the  ordinances  of  the  old  law,  had  need 
to  be  reminded  of  the  sacredness  of  law  as  such  ;  to  be  taught 
that  there  was  an  authority  which  it  behoved  them  to  obey,  even 
if  they  could  not  discover  the  reason  of  its  commands.  The 
third  is,  that  the  relation  of  Jews  and  Gentiles  in  the  Christian 
Church  made  it  a  sin  on  the  part  of  the  Gentiles  to  do  acts,  in- 
nocent in  themselves,  which  would  have  scandalized  those  who 
had  been  bred  under  the  old  Covenant.  All  these  suggestions 
are,  I  think,  entitled  to  great  consideration,  and  are  full  of  in- 
struction for  later  times.  But  I  do  not  know  that  we  shall  profit 
by  them  as  we  might,  if  we  assume  that  the  difficulties  which 
occur  to  us  did  not  also  occur  to  the  churches  which  received 
the  Apostolical  rescript ;  and  if  we  do  not  expect  from  St.  Paul 
himself  an  examination  of  the  difficulty,  and  a  resolution  of 
it  which  will  correct  and  comprehend  our  imperfect  experi- 
ments. 

All  things,  he  had  said,  are  lawful  to  nie — God  has  provided 
meats  for  the  belly,  and  the  belly  for  meats ;  all  we  have  to  do 
is  to  judge  carefully  in  each  case  when  and  how  his  gifts  inter- 
fere with  spiritual  liberty.  But  he  perceives  at  once,  from  his 
knowledge  of  the  Corinthians,  and  of  the  actual  abuses  which 
had  arisen  in  the  Church,  how  this  doctrine  would  be  misinter- 
preted. Fornication  might  be  brought,  as  it  has  been  so  often 
brought,  under  the  same  category  with  mere  excesses  ;  it  might  be 
regarded  as  governed  by  the  same  rule  of  personal  expediency  as 
the  use  of  meats.  No  !  he  says.  The  fact  that  we  are  members 
of  Christ,  that  we  belong  to  him  who  has  raised  and  redeemed 
our  bodies,  gives  this  offence  quite  a  different  character.  The 
Gospel  does  what  the  Law  cannot  do.  It  could  prohibit  ad.ul- 
tery ;  the  violation  of  a  relation  and  ordinance.  It  was  bound 
to  do  this.     But  those  evils  which  affect  society  most  grievously 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS,  297 

through  the  moral  injury  which  they  do  to  the  conscience  of  the 
wrongdoers,  but  which  do  not' directly  break  any  formal  and  rec- 
ognized bonds,  these  it  may  frown  at,  but  cannot  reach.  Most 
fatal  consequences  would  follow  (as  the  Puritan  legislation  in 
North  America  has  sufficiently  proved  to  us)  if  it  attempted  with 
its  rough  hand  to  deal  with  them.  Only  in  the  acknowledgment 
of  a  spiritual  relation  to  Christ,  and  of  a  spiritual  relation  to 
each  other  in  Him,  only  in  the  belief  that  our  bodies  are  the 
Temples  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  lies  any  effectual  protection 
against  this  evil. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

The  transition  is  easy  from  these  hints  and  warning  to  certain 
questions  which  the  Corinthians  had  asked  him  respecting  mar- 
riage and  the  comparative  advantages  of  it  generally,  and,  in 
particular  cases,  over  single  life.  Every  one  is  struck  by  the  un- 
usual cautiousness  and  diffidence  of  St.  Paul,  when  he  approaches 
these  topics.  If  we  compare  the  letter  of  Gregory  the  Great  to 
Augustine  in  Bede,  in  answer  to  inquiries  not  altogether  dis- 
similar, respecting  the  Anglo-Saxon  converts,  we  see  at  once  how 
immeasurably  more  decisive  and  minute  the  Pope  is  than  the 
Apostle.  The  effect  of  St.  Paul's  phrases,  "  I  speak  by  permis- 
sion, not  commandment" — "I  speak,  not  the  Lord,"  on  his 
readers  has  been  curious.  Out  of  mere  reverence  to  Scripture, 
a  great  many  seem  disposed  to  disbelieve  the  Apostle,  and  to 
deny  the  distinction  which  he  himself  makes.  They  are  afraid 
that  they  shall  not  know  what  they  may  accept  as  divine,  if  they 
once  suppose  that  some  words  may  be  from  the  Master,  and 
some  from  the  servant.  Such  reverence,  however  natural,  ap- 
proaches so  near  to  the  greatest  irreverence,  nay,  disbelief,  that 
one  must  at  least  try  to  get  some  better  in  exchange  for  it.  But 
this  is  not  all.  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  not  a  few  are  in- 
clined to  value  these  passages,  in  which  the  Apostle  speaks  with 
hesitation,  above  the  others.     Thev  fancv  that  when   the   Lord 


298  LECTURE    II. 

speaks  the  rules  are  general,  such  as  commonplace  people  are 
to  follow  j  that  the  Apostle's  hints  are  for  the  refined,  the  saintly, 
those  who  are  aiming  at  a  specially  elevated  standard.  Now  I 
have  no  doubt  that  there  is  a  truth  latent  in  this  notion,  but  that 
it  is  most  grievously  distorted,  nay,  utterly  inverted.  I  do  not 
think  that  we  can  find  any  better  way  of  separating  the  precept 
which  is  announced  as  divine,  from  the  suggestion  which  St. 
Paul  deliberately  calls  "  his,"  than  by  regarding  the  one  as  of 
universal  obligation  ;  the  other  as  appertaining  to  local  ciicum- 
stances  and  individual  temperaments.  Those  principles  which 
the  teacher, sent  forth  by  Christ  and  endued  with  the  Spirit, feels 
and  knows  to  be  grounded  in  the  Being  of  God  and  in  his  rela- 
tions to  humanity,  these  he  propounds  absolutely,  unreservedly, 
without  the  slightest  hesitation,  "they  are  the  Lord's."  All  that 
pertains  to  the  nature  and  permanence  of  marriage,  all  prohibi- 
tion of  separation  at  the  mere  pleasure  of  the  party,  or  from  any 
notion  of  religious  advantage,  are  of  this  kind.  These  ride  not 
only  over  private  judgment,  but  over  the  authority  of  Apostles, 
Bishops,  Churches,  Councils  ;  they  have  to  enunciate  them ; 
they  cannot  alter  them  or  dispense  with  them  in  the  least. 
But  when  the  teacher  is  consulted  about  that  which  may 
be  right  for  one  and  wrong  for  another,  he  ought  to  tremble, 
not  because  he  does  not  think  he  has  the  Spirit  of  God, 
but  because  he  may  blunder  in  the  application  of  a  truth  which 
the  Spirit  has  enabled  him  to  realize,  and  because  he  will  cer- 
tainly do  mischief  if  that  which  he  means  for  a  part  is  applied 
for  a  whole — if  the  rules  for  one  age  or  locality  are  imposed 
upon  another.  It  is  not  merely  the  case  of  conscience  itself 
which  calls  for  a  special  wisdom  to  decide  it.  Another  and 
more  terrible  difficulty  arises  from  the  morbid  feeling  of  the 
patient,  that  universal  principles  are  nothing  in  comparison  of 
his  or  her  idiosyncrasy.  Any  one  who  will  deal  with  that  first, 
who  will  find  or  enact  a  law  to  provide  for  it,  is  likely  to  be  es- 
teemed a  S3''mpathethic  friend  and  guide,  and  to  be  made  an 
absolute  authority.  Hence  there  is  an  opening  at  once  for 
spiritual  quackery, — and  for  a  spiritual  despotism,  whenever  the 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  299 

special  receipts  and  prescriptions  are  collected  and  organized 
and  put  forth  for  the  direction  of  all  diseased  people. 

The  more  I  think  of  this  chapter,  the  more  it  seems  to  me  in 
this  point  of  view  one  of  the  most  important  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment ;  not  for  what  it  pronounces  so  much  as  for  this  very  dis- 
tinction between  that  which  is  to  be  and  is  not  to  be  pronounced  ; 
for  the  sacredness  which  it  puts  upon  the  universal ;  for  the  un- 
certainty in  which  it  leaves  the  particular,  with  just  so  much  of 
hint  and  suggestion  as  may  assist  the  conscience,  not  overwhelm 
or  torment  it ;  with  just  so  much  notice  of  peculiar  circumstances 
and  necessities  as  make  us  feel  that  the  inhabitants  of  each 
country  and  times  have  a  distinct  personal  responsibility  in  the 
application  of  great  universal  laws  to  their  own  condition — that 
they  may  profit  by  the  experience  of  others  differently  circum- 
stanced, but  must  not  be  bound  by  it.  These  lessons  St.  Paul 
teaches,  and  they  will  be  found,  I  suspect,  of  infinitely  more  value 
in  the  study  of  Church  History,  and  in  the  emergencies  of  our 
own  lives,  than  the  direct  Yes  !  or  No  !  which  the  Corinthian 
querists  desired  to  extract  from  him,  and  which  readers  of  the 
present  day  also  wish  that  he  had  uttered. 

It  must  always  be  remembered  that  a  great  disease — perhaps 
the  great  disease — of  the  Corinthian  Church  was  the  desire  in 
the  different  classes  of  its  members  to  have  a  law  and  standard 
of  their  own.  The  Apollos  party  would  fain  believe  that  their 
intuitions  gave  them  a  hold  of  truths  which  did  not  belong  to 
the  vulgar.  The  Paulites  would  claim  a  liberty  which  they  de- 
spised the  poor  Judaists  for  being  afraid  or  unable  to  assert. 
Those  Judaists  had  their  conceit  that  they  were  vastly  better  and 
safer  than  those  who  cast  any  old  ceremony  or  tradition  of  the 
law  aside.  The  Apostle  had  been  combating  this  tendency 
through  this  Epistle ;  he  was  not  likely  all  at  once  to  encourage 
it  by  laying  down  a  general  code  of  laws  respecting  marriage  for 
those  who  wished  to  keep  up  an  average  tone  of  devotion,  and  a 
special  code  for  those  who  aspired  to  greater  heights  in  it.  Such 
a  design  has  been  imagined  in  the  chapter,  but  with  the  least 
possible  excuse  from  the  language  of  St.  Paul   himself.     There 


300  LECTURE    II. 

is  no  question  at  all  of  high  devotion  ;  the  Corinthians  were 
tempted  to  very  low  vices  ;  the  point  which  the  Apostle  con- 
siders here  is  how  they  may  best  avoid  them.  The  meaning  and 
sanctity  of  marriage,  as  it  is  exhibited  to  us  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment ;  marriage  as  a  means  of  spreading  the  kingdom  of  God, 
and  as  a  witness  of  God's  relation  to  the  chosen  nation — the 
sanctity  of  marriage  in  the  highest  Christian  sense,  as  it  is  set 
forth  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  is  not  considered  here  at 
all.  St.  Paul  is  asked,  probably  by  some  mystic  of  the  Apollos 
school,  questions  which  will  be  perfectly  understood  by  any 
reader  of  middle-age  history  ;  he  answers  as  plainly  and  briefly 
as  he  can,  without  going  into  detestable  and  demoralizing 
minutiae,  or  yet  affecting  any  circumlocution  and  false  delicacy, 
that  it  is  well  or  honorable  for  a  man  not  to  touch  a  woman  at 
all,  but  that  the  conduct  in  wedlock,  which  they  supposed  holy 
and  exalted,  was  neither  honorable  nor  safe.  The  whole  para- 
graph must  be  taken  together,  not  one  part  separate  from  the 
rest,  and  the  introduction,  "as  concerning  the  things  which  ye 
wrote  unto  me,"  must  not  be  forgotten  ;  for  it  explains  why  such 
a  topic  is  touched  upon  at  all.  Next  he  has  been  asked  respect 
ing  the  izapOhot.  and  /5y>af,  who  had  probably  undertaken  cer 
tain  offices  in  the. Church,  whether  they  had  better  marry  or 
remain  single.  Some  of  them  had  apparently  a  great  desire  to 
tnarry,  some  of  them,  perhaps,  set  it  down  as  a  grievous  oiifence 
or  fault.  He  says  he  believes  they  will  do  their  work  with  less 
distraction  if  they  are  single  ;  but  if  they  find  it  otherwise  let 
them  marry.  The  object  is  moral  freedom,  ability  to  serve 
God  ;  let  each  man  and  woman  keep  that  object  in  sight :  how 
it  may  be  attained  he  cannot  pronounce  generally,  for  each  one 
has  his  own  gift  and  calling  ;  but  singleness  he  finds  better  for 
himself,  and  he  suspects  they  will  have  some  trouble  in  the  flesh 
if  they  marry.  St.  Paul  does  not  put  abstinence  from  marriage 
in  his  own  case  on  the  plea  of  its  being  more  favorable  to  holi- 
ness, but  simply  upon  its  leaving  him  more  free  to  do  the  work 
in  which  he  is  engaged  as  a  missionary.  When  he  speaks  ol 
them,  his  fear  for  them  is  evidently  from  their  very  low  estimate 


FIRST    EPJSTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  30^ 

of  marriage,  which  fear  is  balanced  by  another   that  makes  him 
cautious  of   dissuading  them  from   it.     The   case,   however,   to 
which  the  words,  "  They  shall   have  trouble  in   the  flesh,  but  I 
spare  you,"  are  referred,  seems  a  peculiar  one.     Taking  all  the 
clauses  of  a   passage  together  (which  has  driven  such  grave  in- 
terpreters as  Locke  into  the   most  incredible  outrages  upon  lan- 
guage and   sense),  it  seems  reasonable  to  suppose  that  certain 
young  women  had  been  placed  under  the   guardianship  of  men, 
probably  deacons  of  the  Church,  to  educate  them  for  a  church- 
office,  and  that  when  they  arrived  at  a  marriageable  age  the  two 
parties  had  been  brought  into  unpleasant   and  dangerous   rela- 
tions, which  had   led   to  the   questions,  whether  the  guardians 
might  marry  their   wards,  whether  they  might  marry   them    to 
other  people,  whether  they  might  both  maintain  their  present 
position.     Where  the  last  course  can  be  followed,  where  the  man 
has    thorough    self-command,  and    nothing   has   been    done    to 
wound  the  delicacy  and  feelings  of  the  woman,  St.  Paul,  under 
all  the  circumstances,  recommends  it   as  best,  though  either   of 
the  other  alternatives  he  looks   upon  as  perfectly  harmless,  and 
where  all  the   conditions  he  presumes   are  not  present,  as  ad- 
visable.    Of  course  I  may  be  guessing  wrongfully  about  the  pe- 
culiar difficulty  ;  other  suggestions  may  meet  all  the  points  in  the 
Apostle's  statements  better  ;  but  I  do  not  think  that  any  careful 
reader  can  doubt  that  it  was  an  urgent  necessity  of  a  compli- 
cated kind— though  one  which  might  with  some  variations  often 
recur— which  demanded    his  judgment.     But    the    inference    I 
would  deduce  from  the  fact,  is,  that  the  whole  chapter  is  a  man- 
ual worth  the  continual  study  of  the  spiritual  doctor  dubitantiiun 
precisely  because  it  teaches  him  that  if  he  would  follow  one  of 
the  highest  and  most  inspired  of  guides  he  must  not  give  himself 
airs  of  certainty  respecting  points  where  certainty  is  not  to  be 
had,  must  not  fear  to  show  those  who  are  consulting  him,  that 
he  has  doubts,  and  that  he  dares  not  relieve  them  from  the  re- 
sponsibility of  judging  by  taking  it  upon  himself. 


302  LECTURE    II. 


CHAPTERS  VIIT.  IX.  and  X. 

The  chapters  which  follow  ought  by  no  means  to  be  separated. 
Nor  ought  we,  for  the  sake  of  dwelling  on  the  details  of  them, 
important  as  they  seem,  to  overlook  the  rapid  succession  of  the 
thoughts  in  the  Apostle's  mind.  The  question  to  be  discussed 
has  probably  been  suggested  by  one  of  the  Paulite  school. 
*'  Surely  that  prohibition  of  eating  things  sacrificed  to  idols  is  a 
restraint  upon  the  liberty  which  you  have  claimed  for  us  !  Is 
the  meat  offered  to  idols  not  good,  not  a  creature  of  God  ?  Is 
it  made  evil  by  the  absurdity  of  those  who  use  it  ?  What  is  an 
idol  ?  Nothing,  a  mere  fiction  of  the  brain  !  Can  a  fiction  de- 
stroy a  fact  ?  "  Very  good  reasoning,  says  St.  Paul.  A  sign  of 
great  knowledge.  But  alas  !  of  too  much  knowledge  !  Of  that 
knowledge  which  has  not  yet  allowed  you  to  make  the  discovery, 
We  know  nothing.  An  idol  is  nothing.  However  many  gods 
and  lords  there  may  be,  for  us  members  of  Christ,  united  to  him, 
there  is  but  one  God,  even  the  Father,  and  that  one  Lord  by 
whom  are  all  things.  And  upon  the  ground  of  that  knowledge 
you  establish  a  right  to  do  certain  things  which  give  your  breth- 
ren pain;  nay,  which  would  actually  be  sinful  to  them  if  they 
imitated  you.  Because  you  have  but  one  God,  and  He  has 
withdrawn  you  from  these  dividing  idols,  therefore  each  must  set 
up  his  own  knowledge  against  the  other !  You  who  call  your- 
selves by  the  name  of  Christ  are  content  to  grieve,  yea  mortally 
to  grieve,  a  brother  for  whom  Christ  died  ! 

And  this  you  do  because  I  have  preached  liberty  to  you.  I 
have  preached  it.  And  now  consider  how  I  assert  it  in  my  own 
case.  You  will  not  deny,  I  suppose,  that  I  might,  if  I  pleased, 
claim  to  live  by  the  Gospel  which  I  proclaim.  The  law  permits 
me  to  do  it.  Reason  permits  it.  God  has  appointed  it.  I 
might  marry,  I  might  support  a  wife  at  the  expense  of  the 
Church.  Have  I  done  so  ?  Have  I  asked  payment  of  you  ? 
No,  I  claim  the  privilege  of  not  doing  it.  I  assert  my  right  in  spite 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  303 

of  those  legal,  those  evangelical  provisions,  to  preach  the  Gospel 
without  being  paid  for  it.  That  is  my  reward.  The  Gospel  I 
must  preach  whether  I  wish  it  or  no.  I  am  a  steward,  and  I 
must  dispense  what  I  am  entrusted  with.  But  I  may  have  the 
luxury — the  hire — of  doing  my  work  gratuitously.  In  all  cases 
I  wish  to  act  upon  this  principle.  The  liberty  I  claim  is  the 
liberty  of  showing  deference  to  the  habits,  feelings,  prejudices 
of  Jews  and  Gentiles.  I  do  not  cast  off  the  law  because  it  is  a 
burden  to  me,  and  I  crave  for  independence.  I  cast  it  off  that 
I  may  win  Gentiles  ;  that  I  may  assert  their  share  in  the  divine 
Communion.  That  is  to  be  our  one  object,  the  diffusion  of  the 
Gospel,  the  establishment  of  the  universal  fellowship.  But  if  we 
have  an  object  steadily  before  us,  we  do  as  the  wrestlers  do, 
train  ourselves  for  it;  submit  to  hardships  for  the  sake  of  it. 
Wishing  for  the  prize  they  keep  themselves  on  low  diet  and  to 
severe  exercise.  With  this  prize  before  me,  of  making  men 
sharers  in  God's  love  and  kingdom,  I  must  do  the  like.  I  do 
not  want  the  freedom  to  eat  this  thing  or  that.  I  want  the  free- 
dom which  comes  when  my  body  is  my  servant ;  when  I  can 
make  it  in  all  things  obey  my  orders.  If  it  obtains  the  mastery 
over  me,  I  shall  be  found  good  for  nothing  after  I  have  told 
others  how  they  may  be  God's  children  and  the  citizens  of  his 
kingdom. 

Here  are  two  distinct  paradoxes,  one  growing  out  of  the  other. 
I  submit  myself  to  other  men  because  I  am  free.  I  bring  my 
body  into  subjection  that  I  may  keep  my  freedom.  He  follows 
out  the  last  in  the  next  chapter,  making  it  bear  directly 
upon  some  of  the  leading  fallacies  of  the  Corinthians,  especially 
of  the  party  among  them  which  called  itself  after  his  name. 
They  supposed  that  having  such  great  names  put  upon  them, 
forming  an  Ecclesia,  being  called  of  God,  saints,  sanctified  in 
Christ  Jesus,  they  had  attained  a  safe  position  which  exempted 
them  from  all  necessity  of  that  self-restraint  which  might  be  very 
proper  for  them  who  were  in  a  lower  condition.  To  remov.;  this 
impression  he  reminds  them  that  the  condition  of  belonging  to  a 
called  body  was  not  a  new  one.     The  Old'Testament  was  the 


304  LECTURE    IT. 

history  of  such  a  body,  of  men  who  had  been  consecrated  to  God 
by  a  most  real  baptism  ;  who  had  the  most  certain  sacraments 
of  His  presence  and  regard.  He  takes  it  for  granted,  as  if  it 
were  involved  in  all  his  teaching,  that  Christ  was  with  them,  and 
that  their  manna,  and  the  water  from  the  rock  expressed  the 
direct  relation  in  which  they  stood  to  Him  as  their  invisible  guide 
and  the  Lord  of  Nature.  Being  in  this  state,  the  history  con- 
tinually describes  them  as  murmuring,  lustful,  cowardly,  and  as 
undergoing  the  sorest  punishments.  They  must  lay  the  lesson 
to  heart.  The  old  book  told  facts  concerning  human  beings 
which  must  be  facts  for  all  time.  It  showed  that  the  state  of  the 
election  and  consecration  to  God,  instead  of  making  it  impos- 
sible for  those  who  were  in  it  to  be  faithless,  disobedient,  god- 
less, brought  out  their  faithlessness,  disobedience,  godlessness, 
into  the  strongest  relief.  The  temptations  of  the  outward  world 
were  not  less  to  those  whom  the  invisible  God  had  called  than  to 
other  men ;  the  temptations  of  their  own  fleshly  nature  were  not 
less.  There  was  indeed  always  a  way  out  of  the  temptation. 
The  Protector  was  at  hand  ;  they  were  compassed  about  with 
the  signs  and  pledges  of  protection.  But  they  would  not  under- 
stand them  and  use  them  unless  they  believed  themselves  ready 
at  each  moment  to  fall.  They  would  not  trust  God's  faithfulness 
unless  they  distrusted  their  own.  Every  one  will  see  that  St. 
Paul  strikes  not  merely  at  the  confidence  and  self-conceit  of 
the  Corinthians,  but  at  that  particular  tendency  of  theirs  to  for- 
get that  their  privileges  belonged  to  them  as  members  of  a 
society,  the  tendency  to  glorify  their  individual  knowledge  and 
saintship.  Each  Jew  who  tempted  Christ  tempted  him  by  for- 
getting his  calling  as  a  Jew,  and  by  presuming  upon  his  own 
power  or  upon  God's  favor  to  him.  Each  Corinthian  who 
tempted  Christ  would  do  so  precisely  from  the  same  forgetful- 
ness,  from  the  same  eagerness  to  claim  liberties  and  privileges 
for  himself.  The  Jew's  great  temptation  in  the  wilderness  and 
in  the  holy  land  was  idolatry.  That  summed  up  and  expressed 
all  his  temptations.  And  were  the  Corinthians  free  from  this 
danger.?     Were  they  not  obviously  exposed  to  it  ?     And  was  not 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  305 

the  danger  greatest  when  they  thought  they  were  safe,  when  they 
believed  that  all  the  habits  which  had  once  clung  to  them  w^ere 
at  an  immeasurable  distance  from  them  ? 

Thus  the  particular  question  about  eating  things  offered  to 
idols  is  again  suggested  to  us  by  the  Apostle's  discourse  which 
had  been  so  large  and  general.  He  has  not  forgotten  the  topic 
from  which  he  started,  though  we  may.  And  now  there  comes 
out  in  connection  with  it — in  still  closer  and  more  intimate  con- 
nection with  all  he  has  been  saying  of  the  partial,  dividing,  self- 
exalting  tendencies  of  his  disciples — the  communion  of  Christ's 
body  and  blood. 

"  The  cup  of  blessing  which  we  bless,  is  it  not  the  communion 
of  the  blood  of  the  Christ  ?  The  bread  which  we  break,  is  it 
not  the  communion  of  the  body  of  the  Christ  ?  Because  there  is 
one  bread,  we  the  many  are  one  body;  for  we  all  are  partakers 
of  that  one  bread.  Look  at  Israel  after  the  flesh.  Are  not 
those  who  eat  the  sacrifices  partakers  of  the  altar  ?  What  do  I 
then  say  ?  That  a  thing  offered  to  an  idol  is  any  thing,  or  that 
an  idol  is  any  thing  ?  No  !  But  that  the  things  that  they  sacri- 
fice they  sacrifice  to  demons,  and  not  to  God  ;  and  I  do  not  wish 
you  to  have  communion  with  the  demons.  You  cannot  drink 
the  cup  of  the  Lord,  and  the  cup  of  demons.  You  cannot  com- 
municate at  the  table  of  the  Lord,  and  at  the  table  of  demons.*' 

Till  now  he  has  not  fully  answered  the  objection  that  the 
thing  offered  to  idols  is  nothing,  and  the  idol  is  nothing.  He 
has  detected  the  state  of  mind  in  which  the  objection  originated  ; 
he  has  pointed  out  the  distinction  between  false  liberty  and  the 
true.  Here  he  touches  deeper  ground.  All  worship  is  com- 
munion. You  are  brought  into  communion  with  the  eternal  God 
the  Father.  In  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  you  are  united  to 
Him  and  united  to  each  other.  The  participation  of  that  body 
and  blood  signifies  that  you  are  taken  out  of  subjection  to  lower 
beings,  into  direct  intercourse  with  the  Lord  of  all.  The  bread 
and  wine,  which  are  to  you  what  the  manna  and  water  were  to 
the  Jews,  intimate  that  you  have  been  brought  into  a  higher  fel- 
lowship than  theirs  through  your  ascended  Lord.     Now  all  these 


306  LECTURE    II. 

things  that  are  offered  to  idols  express  the  communion  of  men 
with  beings  of  a  lower  order,  subjection  to  mere  powers  of  na- 
ture. This  is  a  denial  of  your  privilege — an  abdication  of  the 
high  state  which  has  been  given  you. 

I  do  not  assume,  with  our  translators,  that  by  demons  in  this 
place  the  Apostle  means  devils.  I  fully  admit  that  much  of 
Greek,  as  well  as  of  Roman  worship — why  should  I  except  Jew- 
ish ? — was  becoming,  in  the  strictest  sense,  devil-worship,  the 
worship  of  malevolent  beings,  of  natures  opposed  to  the  Divine 
nature.  But  I  conceive  we  should  weaken,  not  strengthen,  this 
passage  if  we  imputed  that  meaning  to  it.  St.  Paul's  contrast 
is  evidently  between  the  lower  divided  powers  to  whom  men  were 
doing  homage,  the  rulers  of  different  portions  of  nature,  and  the 
one  eternal  God,  the  Father  of  Spirits.  The  incarnation,  death, 
resurrection,  ascension  of  Christ,  had  delivered  them  from  these 
powers,  had  raised  them  to  the  highest  glory  men  could  obtain. 
What  a  notion  of  liberty  to  throw  all  this  aside  that  they  might 
prove  they  were  not  narrow  Judaizers  ! 

This  doctrine  of  communion  appeared  to  St.  Paul  to  be  so  im- 
plied in  the  very  existence  of  the  Church,  that  he  propounds  it 
to  the  Corinthians  as  if  it  were  familiar  to  them,  one  which  they 
ought  certainly  to  know.  But  we  are  not  therefore  to  conclude 
either  that  it  was  not  a  truth  of  which  they  were  displaying  con- 
tinual ignorance,  or  that  it  was  not  one  of  the  deepest  of  all 
truths.  This  whole  epistle  is  a  lesson  in  commonplaces.  The 
Corinthians  did  not  like  commonplaces.  They  wanted  novelties. 
They  liked  to  discuss  points  of  opinion,  the  peculiarities  which 
separated  one  teacher  and  school  from  another.  This  was  their 
frivolity ;  this  made  them  incapable  of  looking  at  the  facts  of 
their  own  existence  ;  this  prevented  them  from  entering  into 
those  principles  which  connect  the  being  of  man  with  the  being 
of  God.  When  St.  Paul  announces  these,  he  inevitably  uses 
.phrases  which  denote  a  kind  of  surprise  that  they  should  not  be 
aware  of  that  which  was  so  near  to  them,  and  which  so  inti- 
mately concerned  them.  And  the  minds  of  the  readers  would, 
in  a  certain  degree,  respond  to  this  feeling  of  his.     They  would 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  307 

Start  as  if  a  discovery  was  made  to  them  of  something  very 
awful  which  they  had  always  known,  and  yet  which  flashed  upon 
them  with  a  sense  of  novelty,  such  as  may  sometimes  come  to  a 
person  in  watching  a  sunset  or  a  familiar  landscape.  "  The 
bread  which  we  eat,  is  it  not  the  communion  of  the  body  of 
Christ.?"  "Why,  certainly.  We  have  always  given  it  that 
name.  And  that  name  meant  something,  meant  a  reality,  meant 
what  it  says  !  It  can  actually  be  applied  to  a  special  question, 
to  one  of  our  favorite  topics  of  dispute.  It  can  throw  a  light 
upon  that,  giving  it  an  importance  which  it  never  had  before,  yet 
making  it  and  making  us  look  so  petty  and  dwarfish.  The  rea- 
son for  not  eating  things  offered  to  idols  is,  that  we  are  actually 
taken  into  fellowship  with  the  Lord  God  of  heaven  and  earth, 
actually  redeemed  out  of  idol  and  demon-worship  for  His  ser- 
vice ;  this  is  involved  in  our  very  position  as  members  of  a 
church,  -expressed  in  the  feast  which  denotes  that  we  belong  to 
it^  Here  is  the  reason  for  'flying  from  any  contact  with  that 
which  may  draw  us  back  into  the  earthly  slavery  from  which  we 
have  escaped.  Here,  at  the  same  time,  is  the  full  justification 
of  that  liberty  of  using  all  God's  creatures  which  Paul  had  as- 
serted for  us,  and  of  which  we  thought  he  was  going  again  to 
deprive  us.  Whatever  I  find  in  the  market-place  I  may  eat, 
asking  no  questions,  for  it  is  God's  good  creature  ;  and  the  earth 
is  the  Lord's  and  the  fulness  thereof.  Whatever  is  pointed  out 
to  me  as  offered  to  idols  I  am  not  to  eat ;  for  the  earth  is  the 
Lord's  and  the  fulness  thereof  ;  and  nothing  can  lawfully  be 
taken  from  Him  and  devoted  to  another.  And  this  I  am  to  do, 
even  though  my  own  conscience  may  testify  that  I  am  offering 
that  thing  to  God,  and  not  to  an  idol.  For  I  am  not  alone  in 
the  world.  I  am  the  member  of  a  Church.  I  cannot  think  only 
of  myself.  I  must  think  of  every  man  who  belongs  to  that 
Church,  of  every  Jew  and  Gentile  who  lies  without  it.  If  I  am 
the  means  of  corrupting  their  consciences  I  am  bearing  false 
witness  to  them  :  I  am  misunderstanding  and  outraging  the  state 
into  which  God  has  brought  me." 


308  LECTURE    II. 


CHAPTER   XI. 

This  chapter  opens  with  a  commendation  of  the  Corinthians 
for  their  remembrance  of  St.  Paul's  traditions.  It  would  seem 
as  if  the  Church,  generally,  had  enforced  a  rule  against  which 
certain  members  of  it,  especially  certain  women,  had  protested. 
Though  these  women  may  not  have  been  numerous,  they  dis- 
played a  tendency  which  was  exhibiting  itself  in  different  forms 
throughout  the  society.  Why  may  we  not  eat  things  offered  to 
idols  ?  was  the  form  of  the  cry  for  spiritual  independence  which 
affected  the  name  of  freedom.  There  were  others  as  obvious. 
Why  should  not  a  woman  be  a  prophetess  just  as  much  as  a 
man  ?  Why  should  she  not  claim  to  be  equal  with  the  man  ? 
Who  could  control  the  operations  of  the  Spirit  of  God  ?  Who 
could  dare  to  say  to  a  female  "  Thou  must  be  silent,"  when  she 
believed  an  inner  power  was  urging  her  to  speak  ? 

Very  plausible  arguments,  very  pious,  very  spiritual.  The 
Corinthian  women  were  quick  in  acting  upon  them.  What  was 
natural  and  customary  and  decorous  for  ordinary  people,  was 
just  what  they,  inspired  sisters  carried  away  by  a  divine  afflatus, 
avoided.  And  yet  with  all  their  inspiration,  they  fell  into  the 
imitation  of  the  models  with  which  they  had  been  most  familiar. 
They  had  seen  the  priestesses  of  Aphrodite  with  uncovered  heads 
and  dishevelled  locks ;  they  knew  what  were  the  ordinary  symp- 
toms of  the  Pythian  furor.  These  they  adapted  to  Christian 
usage,  and  naturalized  in  Christian  assemblies.  Would  St.  Paul, 
a  mere  man,  dare  to  control  such  manifestations  ?  Yes,  he  is 
bold  enough  to  do  that.  Let  the  sisters  of  the  free  spirit  call 
him  what  names  they  please,  he  tells  them  plainly  that  they  are 
violating  the  first  maxims  and  principles  of  Christian  society. 
For  the  head  of  the  woman,  is  the  man,  even  as  the  head  of  the 
man  is  Christ,  even  as  the  head  of  Christ  is  God,  The  Church 
is  first  of  all  an  order,  a  divine,  eternal  order,  grounded  on  the 
revelation  of  Christ  as  the  head  of  man.     Whatever  interferes 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  309 

with  that  principle  is  antichristian,  and  is  simply  to  be  put  down. 
But  St.  Paul  has  a  further  lesson  for  these  highflown  proph- 
etesses. He  tells  them  plainly  that  they  are  to  obey  Nature. 
There  is  a  customary  order  about  the  behavior  of  women  which 
their  consciences  in  ordinary  cases  tell  them  is  right.  That  and 
no  other  is  to  be  their  behavior  in  the  Church,  in  the  spiritual 
assembly.  The  way  that  men  and  women  dress  their  hair  in 
other  places  is  the  way  in  which  they  are  to  dress  their  hair 
there.  For  the  Church  of  God  does  not  supersede  any  natural 
law  or  maxim,  not  even  if  it  is  a  local  law  belonging  to  the  habits 
and  customs  of  a  particular  race,  but  establishes  it  upon  its 
deepest  ground. 

This,  it  seems  to  me,  is  the  general  sense  of  this  passage.  If 
I  am  asked  for  the  particular  sense  of  that  sentence  in  it  which 
speaks  of  the  woman  covering  her  head  because  of  the  angels,  I 
may  not  be  able  to  answer.  I  fancy  I  can  discern  a  meaning  in 
it.  But  if  I  tried  to  put  it  into  words  I  should  probably  blunder, 
and  might  interfere  with  a  better  interpretation  which  has  sug- 
gested itself  to  some  one  else.  I  am  chiefly  anxious,  therefore, 
that  the  mysteriousness  of  that  clause  should  not  hinder  any  one 
from  observing  the  thoroughly  human  and,  if  I  might  say  so, 
anti-mystical,  character  of  the  context.  At  the  same  time  I 
would  not  be  misunderstood  as  denying  that  it  also  is  mystical 
in  the  sense  which  is  sometimes  given  to  that  word.  When  St. 
Paul  appeals  to  nature's  teaching,  he  does  not  contradict  all  that 
he  had  said  before  about  the  spiritual  economy  of  the  Church. 
That  economy  according  to  him  vindicates,  interprets,  sanctifies 
what  might  else  pass  for  mere  notions  and  conventions,  the  crea- 
tures of  men's  fancy.  The  principle  that  the  man  is  the  head  of 
the  woman  had  been  recognized  in  all  times.  It  had  been  liable 
to  great  perversions.  These  had  provoked  protests  and  reac- 
tions. But  it  had  given  birth  to  a  great  many  customs  and 
practices  which  had  become  involved  with  the  very  existence  of 
society.  The  truth  that  Christ  is  the  head  of  every  man  came 
in  to  justify  that  imperfect  belief  of  human  beings,  to  remove 
the   tyrannies   to  which   it  had   given   birth,  to   make   any  rude 


3IO  LECTURE    n. 

transgression  of  even  the  secondary  and  variaJble  inferences  from 
it  a  moral  offence.  I  suppose  the  relation  between  the  women 
and  the  angels  is  in  some  way  involved  in  that  fundamental 
principle  ;  I  suppose  it  implies  such  an  intercourse  between  the 
visible  and  invisible  world  as  we  do  not  commonly  recognize, 
and  as  we  could  not  safely  recognize  unless  our  belief  in  Christ's 
relation  to  us  were  more  distinct  and  serious  than  it  is  wont  to 
be.  But  I  hope  no  one  will  lose  himself  in  speculations  about 
this  question  till  he  has  got  into  his  heart  that  portion  of  the 
Apostle's  words  which  is  intended  as  a  correction  for  spiritual 
ambition  and  self-conceit. 

St.  Paul  had  expressed  his  pleasure  that  the  Corinthians  gen- 
erally remembered  the  traditions  he  had  given  them  on  this  sub- 
ject. He  now  expresses  displeasure  that  they  had  entirely  de- 
parted from  the  lessons  he  had  received  and  given  to  them  re- 
specting the  Lord's  Supper.  The  error  of  which  they  were  guilty 
was  strikingly  characteristic  of  their  state  of  mind,  as  it  has  dis- 
covered itself  in  previous  chapters.  They  could  not  understand 
a  common  feast.  Each  one  brought  his  own  supper ;  it  was  re- 
duced to  a  meal  for  the  satisfaction  or  gratification  of  the  bodily 
appetite.  The  heresies  and  schisms  of  the  Church  were  the 
parents  of  this  habit,  and  were  of  course  kept  alive  by  it.  I 
know  nothing  more  instructive  than  St.  Paul's  method  of  dealing, 
with  this  offence.  Gross  as  the  violation  of  decency  and  rever- 
ence was  in  the  eating  and  the  drunkenness,  he  does  not  let 
them  suppose  that  it  is  merely  an  excess  he  is  finding  fault  with. 
A  great  principle  had  been  outraged — one  in  which  the  very 
nature  of  the  Church  was  involved.  He  speaks  first  of  the  rule 
or  order  he  had  laid  down.  This  the  Corinthians  had  altered 
from  carelessness  or  self-will.  But  next  he  makes  them  see  that 
no  ordinance — certainly  not  such  an  ordinance — in  a  Church 
can  be  merely  an  ordinance.  There  must  be  a  profound  signifi- 
cance in  it,  or  it  would  be  empty  formalism  to  observe  it.  That 
same  selfish,  self-willed  habit  which  made  them  innovate  on 
the  sign,  made  them  incapable  of  apprehending  the  thing  sig- 
nified.    They  did   not  discern  the   Lord's  body.     They  set  up 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  3 II 

distinctions  of  rich  and  poor,  of  those  who  had  abundance  and 
those  who  had  need.  They  shamed  the  Church  of  God,  the 
home  of  both.  Not  discerning  the  Lord's  body,  is  evidently  the 
root  of  all  these  errors.  The  incapacity  of  perceiving  that  they 
were  the  members  of  his  body,  that  there  was  one  life  for  them 
all,  one  communion  in  which  all  were  sharers — this  was  the 
dreadful  loss  and  judgment  which  they  incurred..  There  could 
be  no  greater.  It  was  the  loss  of  the  blessings  which  they  had 
won  when  they  gave  up  their  divided  idolatrous  worship  and 
confessed  the  one  Lord  and  one  Father.  Less  judgments,  flow- 
ing from  their  own  ill-doings,  weakness,  feebleness  of  body,  tor- 
por of  body  and  mind,  they  should  look  upon  as  merciful  pun- 
ishments, warning  to  them  that  God  was  wakening  them  up  to 
judge  themselves — to  exercise  their  spiritual  energies  which  he 
had  given  them,  and  which  would  ejiable  them  to  discern 
Christ  as  the  root  of  their  own  life  and  of  the  life  of  all  their 
brethren. 

CHAPTERS    Xn.  Xin.  XIV. 

And  thus  the  way  is  prepared  for  the  wonderful  passages  which 
follow, — those  which  contain  the  very  essence  of  the  episde — 
which  make  the  ignorance  and  strife  of  the  Corinthians  instru- 
ments of  bringing  forth  the  revelation  of  the  principle  on  which 
the  whole  Church  and  on  which  human  society  is  founded.  He 
does  not  wish  them,  he  says,  to  be  ignorant  -£/>>  raiv  -vzoixaTty.ibv 
an  expression  (touching  the  spiritual)  which  we  are  hardly  justi- 
fied in  limiting  by  the  term  "gifts:  "  especially  if  by  that  term 
we  understand  merely  the  powers  which  were  bestowed  upon  the 
Church  in  that  day  or  in  any  subsequent  one.  No  doubt  he 
undertakes  to  explain  the  nature  and  purpose  of  these  powers, 
and  to  connect  them  with  the  nature  and  purpose  of  the  Church 
itself.  But  he  begins  earlier.  While  they  were  Gentiles,  unac- 
quainted with  the  Gospel,  they  were  still  under  a  spiritual  influ- 
ence. They  were  not  mere  creatures  of  sense.  They  had  the 
instinct  and  necessity  of  worship.     But  they  were  drawn  after 


312  LECTURE    II. 

dumb  idols.  Their  instincts  of  worship  were  turned  towards 
dead  things.  Wherefore  he  gives  them  to  understand  that  no 
one  speaking  by  the  Spirit  of  God  calls  Jesus  Anathema,  or 
that  no  one  can  call  Him  Lord  but  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  Why 
^^  ivhere/oreV  What  has  the  second  proposition  to  do  with  the 
first?  This  I  apprehend.  The  impulse  of  the  Corinthians  was 
to  believe  in  a  Spirit,  and  to  glorify  themselves  for  possessing 
it.  Spiritual  powers  they  reverenced.  The  new  capacity  of 
speaking  with  tongues  was  as  great  an  excuse  for  intellectual 
pride  as  any  of  the  gifts  which  they  were  conscious  of  before 
they  were  converted  had  been.  St.  Paul  wishes  them  to  under- 
stand first  of  all,  what  Spirit  had  taken  hold  of  them,  whither  he 
was  leading  them.  Their  secret  thought  was  that  He  was  come 
to  make  them  independent,  to  set  them  above  law  and  order — 
the  habit  of  mind,  which  as  I  said  before,  displayed  itself  in  the 
women  being  just  as  really  that  of  the  men.  He  tells  them  that 
the  Spirit  of  God  is  leading  them  to  confess  a  Lord,  to  bow  down 
their  spirits  to  a  government,  and  to  confess  Jesus  the  crucified 
to  be  the  Person  who  is  exercising  that  government.  Supposing 
then  they  put  Him  aside  and  substitute  any  mere  spiritual  power 
and  influence  in  this  place,  supposing  they  claim  that  kind  of 
liberty  which  consists  in  saying  what  they  please  and  doing  what 
they  like,  they  are  not  speaking  by  the  spirit  of  God  ;'  and  sup- 
posing they  confess  Jesus  to  be  the  Lord  of  all  their  inmost 
thoughts  and  speech,  that  is  the  sign  and  token  that  they  are 
submitting  to  the  true  Spirit.  Some  might  actually  have  used 
the  words  aydOzij.a  'Ir,(>(Toq^  declaring  in  a  moment  of  supposed 
divine  ecstasy  that  the  mere  acknowledgment  of  Jesus  was  a 
very  low  kind  of  Christianity,  from  which  those  who  had  attained 
to  spiritual  intuitions  were  emancipated.  One  could  easily  sus- 
pect this  from  what  we  know  of  the  Everlasting  Gospel  in  the 
13th  century  and  of  similar  movements  in  different  times  of  the 
Church.  But  if  the  words  were  uttered  by  a  few,  the  principle 
pervaded  the  hearts  of  a  great  many,  and  nothing,  I  suspect, 
may  have  starded  many  members  of  the  Church  more  than  to  be 
told  that  the  highest  operation  of  the  Spirit  was  to  teach  them  of 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  3 13 

the  dominion  of  Jesus  over  them.  Could  not  all  say  that  they 
had  believed  that,ever  since  they  were  baptized  ?  Might  not  they 
hope  now  for  some  higher  illuminahon  ?  No  !  it  was  just  this 
truth  which  they  had  so  imperfectly  understood.  This  was  what 
they  wanted  that  they  might  be  cured  of  their  strifes  ;  this  that 
they  might  be  a  Church,  a  spiritual  body.  For  as  we  have  seen 
all  along,  their  sense  of  being  high-souled,  highly-exalted  men  in- 
terfered altogether  with  their  feeling  that  they  belonged  to  a 
body,  and  therefore— this  has  been  St.  Paul's  doctrine  through- 
out—with their  spirituality.  The  psychical  man  may  boast  of 
that  which  belongs  to  him  as  an  individual,  that  which  distin- 
guishes him  from  others,  in  power  or  saintship,  intellectually  or 
morally— the  spiritual  man  must  seek  only  that  which  is  com- 
mon, that  which  he  and  his  brother  can  have  as  their  joint  in- 
heritance. 

Here,  then,  is  the  principle  of  the  chapter  as  of  the  Epistle, 
"  You  must  be  a  body  in  order  to  know  what  the  Spirit  is,  in 
order  to  receive  any  benefit  from  his  operations.  You  must  have 
a  Spirit  in  order  that  you  may  be  a  body,  not  a  mere  set  of  dis- 
jecta membra.  The  gifts  which  one  had  and  another  had  not, 
had  been  mistaken  for  the  gift ;  the  living  Spirit  from  whom  they 
came.  He  begins  therefore  with  laying  down  the  doctrine  that 
these  distinctions  imply  the  same  Spirit.  There  were  again  dif- 
ferent ofhces,  each  of  which  had  been  an  excuse  for  some  class 
difference,  some  exaltation  of  one  against  another.  Each  of 
these  are  declared  to  be  ministries ;  but  they  are  not  referred  to 
the  Inspirer,  but  to  the  Lord,  of  whom  He*  testifies.  Finally, 
there  are  difference  of  energies.  It  is  not  enough  for  a  man,  or 
for  a  Church,  to  talk  of  gifts,  or  even  occupations  and  services. 
It  must  refer  all  to  a  divine  Energizer.  It  must  believe  that 
God  is  making  gifts,  persons,  ministries,  alive,  and  not  dead,  that 
He  is  reviving  and  receiving  that  Spirit  which  He  has  Himself 
bestowed.  Thus  we  have  the  great  theological  mystery  set  forth 
as  the  source  of  the  great  human  mystery— God  the  ground  of 
all,  Christ  the  Lord  of  man,  the  Spirit  of  the  Father  and  the  Son, 
the  perpetual  fellow-worker  with  men. 


314  LECTURE    11. 

This  principle  being  laid  down,  he  goes  on  to  say  that  the 
manifestation  of  this  power  in  each  man,  the  particular  talent  or 
energy  which  he  exhibits,  i»  not  the  result  of  accident,  but  of 
a  law.  It  is  r.puq  rd  fTorj.cpipoy,  with  a  view  to  the  common  ben- 
efit. Through  the  Spirit  he  says  comes  the  word  of  wisdom,  the 
word  of  knowledge,  faith,  gifts  of  healing,  the  working  of  powers 
or  miracles,  distinctions  of  tongues,  interpretation  of  tongues. 
The  author  of  these,  the  gifts  which  require  patient  cultivation, 
which  grow  by  exercise,  just  as  much  as  any  which  manifest 
themselves  suddenly,  he  says,  is  the  Spirit;  the  end  of  them  the 
good  of  the  society.  In  fact,  there  is  no  power  described  by  the 
Apostle  which  is  merely  marvellous  in  the  vulgar  sense  of  the 
word  ;  none  which  might  not  be  divested  of  all  marvel,  and  ex- 
ercised, as  we  should  say,  professionally.  The  object  of  the 
Apostle  is  clearly  not  to  explain  the  particular  phenomena  of 
his  own  age,  but  to  show  how  those  phenomena  illustrate  the 
constitution  of  the  Church  and  of  humanity. 

P'ully  to  appreciate  the  description  which  follows,  and  to  re- 
cover the  impression  of  which  familiarity  deprives  us,  we  should 
compare  it  with  the  view  of  society  which  is  given  in  the  Levia- 
than of  Hobbes.  That  clear-sighted  man  perceived  at  once  the 
truth  of  St.  Paul's  image.  He  saw  that  the  body  and  the  mem- 
bers must  be  the  type  of  that  distinctness  and  that  unity  which 
are  implied  in  a  polity.  The  body  politic,  he  saw,  was  no  idle  or 
fantastic  expression.  But  then  he  regards  the  body  as  natural  ; 
society  as  wholly  artificial.  It  was  manufactured,  as  nearly  as 
might  be,  with  many  awkward  deviations,  after  the  pattern  which 
nature  furnishes.  One  may  say  that  the  whole  difference  be- 
tween the  world's  order — of  which  Hobbes  exhibits  the  true  and 
complete  representation,  and  the  Christian  order  which  is  de- 
veloped by  the  Apostle,  lies  in  this  difference.  An^  it  is  very 
important  that  we  should  press  this  observation  upon  ourselves 
and  upon  others.  We  are  apt  to  think  that  St.  Paul  is  present- 
ing to  us  the  image  of  a  peculiarly  beautiful  and  seraphic  social 
condition.  How  glorious,  we  say  to  ourselves,  the  time  when 
the  foot  shall  not  say  to  the  hand,  I  have  no  need  of  thee,  when, 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  315 

if  one  member  suffers,  all  the  members  shall  suffer  !  Very  glo- 
rious assuredly  the  time  when  people  shall  understand  what  theii 
condition  is,  and  shall  not  struggle  against  it.  That  is  as  ser- 
aphical  a  vision  as  one  can  have.  But  St.  Paul  tells  that  the 
foot  cannot  now,  or  at  any  time,  dispense  with  the  hand ;  that  if 
one  member  suffer,  all  the  members  must^v&^x  here  and  always. 
We  cannot  make  our  separate  human  body  otherwise  than  God 
has  made  it ;  it  is  under  a  law — the  one  which  experience  every 
day  makes  known  to  us.  We  cannot  make  the  whole  human 
body  otherwise  than  God  has  made  it ;  and  if  the  revelation  of 
Christ  is  not  an  imposture,  this  is  the  constitution  of  that  body. 
The  particular  Church  of  Corinth,  with  its  rivalries,  heresies? 
questions  about  idol-sacrificing,  abuses  of  the  Communion,  exal- 
tation of  gifts,  through  all  these  contradictions,  is  taught  what 
its  own  law  and  order  is  ;  we  are  to  learn  ours  from  it.  Nothing 
can  be  so  perverse  as  to  suppose  that  we  are  reading  of  some 
celestial  paradisaical  people,  while  St.  Paul  is  pointing  out  at 
every  turn  their  ignorance  and  wilfulness.  We  must  say  plainly 
that  this  state  was  theirs  because  it  is  also  ours,  or  that  St.  Paul 
was  not  a  true  teacher  of  them  or  of  us. 

The  first  object  of  the  12th  chapter  is  certainly  to  explain  the 
law  under  which  the  whole  society  existed ;  the  second  to  ex- 
plain how  the  gifts  and  offices  of  the  particular  members  of  the 
society  were  determined  by  that  law  and  illustrated  it.  Every  thing 
depends  upon  the  observance  of  this  method.  If  the  spiritual 
gifts  and  graces  of  individuals  are  thought  oi first,  if  the  body  is 
supposed  to  be  made  up  of  a  certain  set  of  limbs  which  had  been 
previously  endowed  with  a  separate  life,  the  Christian  society 
acquires  as  artificial  a  character  as  the  Hobbes  society  ;  his  idea, 
and  not  St.  Paul's,  is  the  explanation  of  a  Church.  Christ  in 
that  case  becomes  just  what  the  Corinthians  considered  Him, 
the  king  or  leader  whom  they  had  chosen  in  preference  to  some 
other,  not  the  corner-stone  which  can  alone  bind  living  and 
spiritual  beings  together.  I  drop  unawares  into  St.  Peter's  illus- 
tration, one  which  he  derived  from  the  Old  Testament.  So 
closely  are  his   and  St.   Paul's  connected,  so  admirably  is  each 


3l6  LECTURE    II. 

adapted  to  some  side  or  portion  of  human  life,  that  one  in- 
evitably suggests  the  other.  The  human  body,  however,  is  the 
great  illustration  of  all  to  which  every  other  must  be  referred 
and  by  which  it  must  be  tested.  The  stones  of  the  temple  be- 
come "  living  "  stones  by  a  kind  of  violence  before  they  can  rejD- 
resent  the  members  of  a  human  society.  The  members  of  a 
body  must  necessarily  be  considered  as  alive;  and  their  life  neces- 
sarily implies  unity.  Only  in  the  scattered  distracted  condition 
in  which  Ezekiel  saw  them  in  his  vision,  can  we  conceive  of  them 
as  utterly  dead  ;  no  one  has  perished  in  itself  till  it  has  lost  that 
which  unites  it  with  the  rest.  One  does  not  know  how  to  state 
these  simple  propositions  simply  enough.  The  least  effort  to 
make  them  abstract  weakens  them.  We  stumble  back  into  St. 
Paul's  phraseology  when  we  have  quitted  it,  as  the  only  full  ex- 
planation of  our  own  explanations.  And  yet  one  perceives  at 
each  moment  how  we  have  been  forgetting  this  truth,  not  in  daily 
practice  only,  but  in  our  most  elaborate  ecclesiastical  and  the- 
ological theories.  Each  one  of  them  contrives  by  some  ingenious 
sophism  or  other  to  evade  the  straightforward  question,  "  Because 
the  hand  or  the  eye  or  the  foot  says,  I  am  not  of  the  body,  is  it  not 
of  the  body  ? "  Each  one  tries  to  make  out  that  hand,  eye,  or 
foot,  has  a  right  to  say  it  is  not  of  the  body,  nay,  that  it  has  no 
right  to  say  it  is,  that  it  ought  to  be  modest  and  diffident  before 
it  claims  such  an  honor.  Each  eye  is  to  look  hard  that  it  may 
try  to  find  out  whether  there  is  no  salvation  for  itself  ;  each  hand 
is  to  stretch  itself  out  that  it  may  catch  at  this  salvation  or  at 
some  shadow  of  it ;  each  foot  is  to  try  if  it  cannot  move  on  by 
itself  in  the  way  to  salvation.  And  the  eye  is  blind  and  the 
hand  is  withered  and  the  foot  is  paralyzed,  because  it  is  urged 
to  a  vain  and  impossible  experiment,  because  it  is  not  told  of 
its  relation  to  Him  in  whom  the  whole  body  is  fitly  joined  to- 
gether, and  who  supplies  the  nourishment  to  each  joint.  And 
so  each  particular  gift  is  wonderfully  over-valued,  and  is  made 
an  excuse  for  extravagant  idolatry,  while  yet  no  gift  serves 
its  proper  purpose,  while  none  has  the  freedom  and  strength 
which   it   would  derive  from  the  support  and  fellowship  of   the 


FIRST    EPISTLE     TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  317 

rest,  while  none   awakens  the  thankfulness  which   is  due  to  the 
Almighty  Giver. 

The  enymeration  of  gifts  by  the  Apostle  at  the  conclusion  of 
this  chapter  has,  I  suppose,  puzzled  many  readers ;  human 
beings  are  so  strangely  mixed  up  with  their  endowments.  "  God 
hath  set  certain  in  the  Church,  first  apostles,  secondly  prophets, 
thirdly  teachers,  then  powers  (or  miracles),  then  gifts  of  healing, 
helps,  governments,  varieties  of  tongues."  But  this  order  is  in- 
telligible when  one  considers  the  sentence  immediately  preced- 
ing, and  the  purpose  of  the  whole  chapter.  Apostles,  prophets, 
teachers,  as  far  as  their  ofiEices  are  concerned,  are  merely  minis- 
terial to  the  whole  body  in  the  same  sense  as  gifts  of  speaking 
or  of  healing  are.  The  human  treasure  is  put  in  the  highest 
place.  A  man  is  a  greater  gift  to  the  Church  than  all  which  he 
does.  Paul  is  more  than  any  words  which  Paul  is  able  to  speak 
or  any  wonders  he  is  able  to  enact.  Nevertheless  the  man  is  as 
much  placed  in  the  Church,  is  as  much  bestowed  upon  it,  as  the 
energies  which  are  wrought  by  his  means.  And  the  man  and 
the  gifts  alike  stand  in  a  certain  fixed  relation.  There  is  nothing 
fortuitous  in  the  arrangements  of  this  society.  The  teacher  is 
subordinate  to  the  prophet,  the  prophet  to  the  apostle.  All 
those  influences  which  may  strike  some  as  overpowering  inspira- 
tions that  they  cannot  control,  are  really  subject  to  them.  They 
are  spiritual  gifts,  and  therefore  they  belong  to  an  order.  That 
which  is  unspiritual,  fleshly,  idolatrous,  is  always  trying  to  be 
strange  and  startling.  I  scarcely  need  point  out  how  much  the 
errors  of  the  Corinthians  demanded  the  assertion  of  this  princi- 
ple, or  how  much  it  is  demanded  by  ourselves.  It  would  seem 
as  if  we  had  begun  to  think  that  every  thing  wdiich  is  spiritual 
must  be  irregular,  fortuitous,  anomalous.  When  once  we  are 
brought  to  live  habitually  in  the  opposite  faith,  the  trade  of 
the  wonderment-maker  will  be  obsolete  and  hopeless ;  all  will 
know  the  worth  of  his  wares,  and  will  treat  them  with  the  scorn 
which  they  deserve.  That  time  will  not  come  till  we  desire 
earnestly  the  best  gifts,  till  we  count  all  arts  of  healing,  all  capa- 
cities of  government,  as  divine  trusts,  the  most  divine  when  they 


3l8  LECTURE     II. 

are  most  regularly  and  scientifically  exercised ;  until  we  enter 
upon  that  more  excellent  way  which  the  Apostle  after  this  ex- 
hibition of  the  worth  of  gifts  points  out  to  us.  . 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

It  is  almost  needless  to  observe  that  this  chapter  cannot  be 
separated  from  the  last.  The  subordination  of  gifts  to  the 
divine  principle  which  binds  the  whole  Church  together, — to  the 
gift  of  God, — is  the  subject  of  it.  This  is  the  answer  to  the 
argument  which  Socinus  deduced  from  it  against  the  personality 
of  the  Holy  Spirit :  "  The  Apostle  can  indulge  in  a  lung  personi- 
fication of  charity ;  why  must  he  or  our  Lord  mean  more  when 
they  attribute  acts,  qualities,  sympathies,  to  the  Comforter  or  the 
Spirit  of  truth  ?  "  I  admit  that  if  there  is  a  prosopopoeia  in  one 
case,  there  may  be  in  the  other.  But  there  really  is  in  neither. 
The  Apostle  speaks  of  charity  suffering  long  and  being  kind, 
because  he  cannot  separate  charity  from  Him  who  is  Charity. 
He  regards  Love  as  the  essence  of  God,  not  as  His  attribute. 
And  if  you  say,  ''  Does  he  mean  then  by  Charity  in  this  chapter 
divine  Charity,  and  not  human  .''  "  I  answer,  he  must  mean  one  if 
he  means  the  other.  The  only  charity  which  fully  answers  to 
this  description  is  the  charity  of  God  Himself.  Separate  man 
from  God,  and  it  remains  wholly  and  incommunicably  in  Him. 
it  is  a  contradiction  to  suppose  charity  incommunicable.  Its 
nature  implies  a  desire  for  fell®wship  and  participation.  The 
very  words  which  represent  charity  here  represent  it  in  exercise, 
yes,  and  in  exercise  towards  those  who  are  resisting  it,  towards 
those  who  are  unworthy  of  it.  If  you  must  have  the  belief  of  a 
charity — and  I  know  you  must— which  is  absolute  and  original, 
not  merely  in  relation  to  any  creature,  and  yet  which  seeks  for 
such  a  relation,  longs  for  it,  establishes  it,  then  believe  in  a 
Father.  If  you  must  believe  in  love  manifesting  itself — and  I 
know  you  must — meeting  the  disobedient  and  rebellious  creature, 
embracing  it,  adopting  it,  then  believe  in  an  only-begotten  Son. 


FIRST     EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  319 

If  you  must — and  I  know  you  must — speak  of  that  love  as  not 
presented  to  the  creature  only  but  as  working  in  it,  then  believe 
in  the  Holy  Spirit  of  Love.  And  so  you  have  the  charity  of 
this  chapter  presented  in  its  fulness  and  all-sufficiency,  and  yet 
with  every  possible  allowance  for  the  imperfect  and  insufficient 
results  which  it  produces  when  it  is  brought  into  connection  and 
conflict  with  a  will,  or  a  number  of  wills,  not  in  submission  to  it. 
This  Charity  is  still  the  ground  of  all  unity  to  the  Church.  The 
acknowledgment  of  it  as  working  in  the  Church,  as  working 
upon  ourselves,  is  that  superlative  or  more  excellent  way  by 
which  man  rises  into  a  belief  in  God  and  into  communion  with 
Him.  It  appertains  to  the  eternal  and  to  the  universal;  while 
gifts  and  powers  belong  to  the  temporal ;  while  even  prophecies 
belong  to  a  partial  region.  They  may  be  of  yesterday  or  to-day  ; 
they  may  indicate  a  period  of  partial  illumination,  of  childlike 
apprehension.  But  there  is  that  which  is  abiding  and  eternal. 
Faith  is  so,  for  it  attaches  itself  to  the  eternal  God  ;  Hope  is  so, 
for  it  looks  to  the  full  revelation  of  the  Eternal  God  ;  Love  is  so 
in  the  highest  sense  of  all,  because  God  Himself,  the  object  of 
Faith  and  Hope,  is  Charity. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

We  have  heard  of  that  which  is  above  all  gifts,  and  also  of 
that  which  gives  a  value  to  all  gifts,  and  enables  us  to  ascertain 
their  relative  importance.  Speaking  with  tongues  had  seemed 
to  the  Corinthians  the  most  precious  of  all  powers,  because  the 
outward  exhibitions  of  it  were  the  most  surprising  ;  preaching 
(or  prophesying)  the  most  insignificant,  as  being  the  most  com- 
monplace. St.  Paul  necessarily  reverses  the  order.  If  Love  is 
the  end,  that  which  conduces  to  the  good  of  the  whole  body  must 
be  better  than  that  which  is  confined  to  the  individual.  In  order 
to  maintain  this  distinction,  it  is  necessary  for  him  to  explain  both 
the  nature  and  purpose  of  the  gift  of  tongues.  His  explanation 
is  altogether  inconsistent  with  many  of  the  notions  which  have 


320       .  LECTURE     II. 

been  current  among  us.  We  are  often  told  that  this  gift  was 
specially  convenient,  and  even  necessary  for  those  who  had  to 
preach  the  Gospel  in  different  countries.  No  hint  is  given  of 
the  kind  in  the  New  Testament.  In  this,  the  classical  pas- 
sage on  the  subject,  our  translators  have  been  so  much  puzzled 
how  to  reconcile  the  Apostle's  language  with  their  own  previous 
conception,  that  they  have  very  unrighteously  thrust  in  the  word 
"  unknown  "  in  order  to  make  him  more  intelligible.  He  seems 
to  tell  us  that  the  gift  of  tongues  was  not  primarily  an  intellectual 
gift,  that  it  was  the  sign  of  a  communication  between  God's 
Spirit  and  that  spirit  of  man  in  us  to  which  he  had  alluded  in  a 
former  passage ;  that  it  was  therefore  the  witness  of  the  divinest 
Christian  mystery,  of  that  union  of  man  with  God  which  was  im- 
plied in  the  acts  of  Christ,  and  made  effectual  by  those  acts,  of 
that  union  of  man  with  man  which  was  implied  and  realized  in 
the  existence  of  a  Church.  It  was  the  main  error,  as  we  have 
seen,  of  the  Corinthians,  that  they  confounded  this  spirit  of  man 
with  individual  soul,  glorifying  separate  powers  and  qualities  at 
the  expense  of  that  which  was  universal.  Here  was  the  climax 
of  their  falsehood.  This  gift  of  tongues  itself  was  made  a  pre- 
text for  their  individualizing  tendencies.  They  exulted  in  the 
divine  communication  of  words  because  no  one  could  understand 
them.  They  liked  to  think  that  something  was  given  to  one 
here  and  there  in  the  Church,  with  which  the  rest  had  nothing  to 
do.  It  is  this  tendency  which  St.  Paul  is  combating  here.  He 
does  not  disparage  that  which  had  been  the  great  and  significant 
witness  that  the  Church  had  been  begun  upon  earth,  that  there 
was  a  real  fellowship  between  earth  and  heaven.  But  with  his 
usual  courage,  he  sets  at  nought  even  that  sign  when  he  sees 
that  its  meaning  has  been  wholly  subverted.  He  tells  them  that 
they -are  to  desire  to  prophesy  because  that  is  useful,  and  that 
they  are  "not  to  forbid  to  speak  with  tongues."  Not  to  forbid  to 
.speak  with  tongues  !  What  a  strange  and  audacious  sentence. 
How  could  they  forbid  that  which  was  the  effect  of  a  divine  in- 
spiration ?  This  is  the  subject  which  he  especially  considers  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  chapter.     The  high-flown  Corinthians  were 


FIRST     EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  321 

far  above  all  vulgar  thoughts  of  usefulness.  They  were  equally 
indifferent  to  so  vulgar  a  thing  as  Order.  St.  Paul,  the  inspired 
Apostle,  will  have  usefulness  and  order,  because  he  is  certain 
that  the  Spirit  is  a  Spirit  of  order,  and  that  all  manifestations  of 
the  Spirit  are  given  to  profit  withal.  Those  inspirations  must 
be  undervalued  which  are  not  beneficial  to  the  body;  those  must 
be  suppressed,  and  can  be  suppressed,  which  interfere  with  its 
quietness  and  order.  If  any  question  his  decision  on  this  point, 
he  does  not  reason  with  them  ;  he  simply  puts  them  down  ; 
"What,  came  the  word  of  God  out  from  you  ?  Or  came  it  unto 
you  only  ?  If  any  man  think  himself  to  be  a  prophet  or  spirit- 
ual, let  him  acknowledge  that  the  things  which  I  write  unto  you 
are  the  commandments  of  the  Lord.  But  if  any  man  be  ignorant, 
let  him  be  ignorant." 

There  is  a  passage  in  this  chapter  which  has  caused  some 
perplexity.  In  one  sentence  Paul  seems  to  affirm  that  the  gift 
of  tongues  is  not  for  them  that  believe,  but  for  them  that  believe 
not;  the  opposite  being  the  case  with  prophesying  or  preaching. 
Presently  after  he  seems  to  say  that  preaching  or  prophesying 
will  be  specially  useful  to  any  unbeliever  who  comes  into  their 
congregations,  w'hereas,  if  such  a  person  hears  them  speaking 
with  tongues,  he  will  only  suppose  they  are  mad.  The  difficulty 
arises,  I  think,  from  a  misunderstanding  of  the  first  proposition. 
The  gift  of  tongues  was  beneficial  to  themselves  while  they  be- 
lieved not ;  that  is  to  say,  it  was  the  token  to  them  of  a  spiritual 
communication  which  before  they  had  not  supposed  to  be  possible. 
Afterwards,  when  they  had  believed  in  the  presence  of  a  Spirit, 
when  they  had  perceived  that  it  was  implied  in  all  their  fellow- 
ship and  all  their  worship,  this  sign  was  of  little  worth.  To 
crave  for  it  was  a  proof  that  they  had  not  believed  that  which  it 
imported.  If  this  is  the  force  of  that  assertion  it  certainly  is  not 
the  least  at  variance  with  the  other,  which  is  so  evidently  reason- 
able, and  must  have  been  confirmed  by  the  experience  of  the 
whole  Christian  Church. 


,22  LECTURE     II. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


The  connection  between  this  chapter  and  those  which  precede 
it,  is  not  at  once  obvious.  But  we  shall  soon  detect  it  if  we  con- 
sider the  question  which  gives  rise  to  the  discussion.  "  How  say- 
some  among  you  that  there  is  no  resurrection  of  the  dead  ?  " 
Some  among  them  said  there  was  no  resurrection  of  the  dead, 
for  tlie  same  reason  that  some  among  them  said  they  were  of 
Paul  or  of  Apollos,  that  some  among  them  exalted  their  own 
wisdom,  that  some  of  them  asserted  their  right  to  eat  things 
offered  to  idols,  and  in  all  respects  to  do  what  they  liked,  that 
some  of  them  wished  women  to  speak  in  the  churches,  that  some 
treated  the  Communion  as  an  ordinary  feast,  that  some  valued 
gifts  which  glorified  them  above  gifts  which  were  useful  to  the 
Church.  These  notions  of  some  expressed  that  which  was  the 
failing  of  all,  the  inclination  to  value  the  individual  above  the 
body,  tongues  and  prophecies  above  charity.  To  deny  a  bodily 
resurrection,  to  maintain  that  the  only  resurrection  was  the 
rising  to  a  higher  spiritual  state,  was  a  natural  consequence  or 
accompaniment  of  such  notions  and  feelings.  The  old  Greek 
reverence ^for  the  soul,  and  contempt  of  the  body,  was  reviving 
under  the  shadow  of  Christian  ordinances,  and  fashioning  Chris- 
tian doctrines  into  conformity  with  itself.  Whatever  was  common 
and  human  was  therefore  despicable  ;  whatever  was  peculiar  and 
distinguishing  was  therefore  glorious.  The  body  was  the  case  of 
death  from  which  the  winged  soul,  according  to  the  doctrine  of 
older  philosophers,  was  to  emerge  in  the  hour  of  dissolution.  The 
Christians  could  antedate  the  period  of  deliverance  ;  the  spirit 
was  already  winged,  already  regenerate.  They  were  buried  with 
Christ  by  baptism  into  death  ;  they  were  risen  by  faith  in  the 
operation  of  God  who  had  raised  Him  from  the  dead.  They 
looked  back  upon  that  to  which  their  ancestors  looked  forward  ; 
they  could  place  the  superiority  of  the  new  doctrine  upon  that 
ground.     But   while  they  did  so,  they  were,  in   fact,  adhering  to 


FIRST     EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  323 

the  psychical  principle  of  the  old  heathenism,  and  parting  with 
the  hope  for  the  future  which  heathenism,  however  faintly,  had 
authorized. 

St.  Paul,  in  pursuance  of  the  method  which  he  had  always 
prescribed  to  himself,  begins  with  them  again  from  the  beginning. 
Those  who  are  full  of  conceit  of  their  manhood  must  be  treated 
as  babes,  and  fed  with  milk.  He  declares  to  them  the  Gospel 
which  he  had  preached  to  them  ;  the  simple  common  Gospel 
that  Christ  had  died  for  their  sins  and  risen  again  the  third  day. 
He  dwells  distinctly  on  these  events,  as  events,  apart  from  the 
meaning  which  he  may  afterwards  discover  in  them.  He  insists 
that  they  were  in  accordance  with  the  scriptures.  The  written 
word  of  God  demanded  them.  They  were  no  parts  of  a  phi- 
losophical or  theological  theory.  And  this,  he  says,  was  his  good 
news.  He  had  nothing  better  to  tell  them  than  that  the  Son  of 
God  and  the  Son  of  Man  had  gone  into  death  and  risen  out  of 
death.  Here  was  their  salvation  out  of  sin  and  death  if  they 
believed  that  He  had  done  this,  and  done  it  for  them.  If  no 
such  acts  had  been  accomplished,  no  such  victories  had  been 
won,  they  were  still  in  their  old  slavery  ;  they  had  not  been  re- 
deemed at  all. 

Plain  and  historical  enough  surely.  St.  Paul  would  seem  to 
be  speaking  of  mere  transactions  external  to  the  man  to  whom 
they  are  proclaimed  and  who  believes  them.  But  I  am  afraid 
we  cannot  acquit  him  of  mysticism,  if  a  belief  in  Christ  as  the 
root  and  ground  of  humanity  is  mysticism,  so  quickly.  The 
whole  of  the  argument  which  follows  rests  upon  this  mystical 
ground,  and  is  good  for  nothing  if  it  be  taken  from  him.  If  we 
do  not  rise,  then  Christ  is  not  risen,  and  then  our  preaching  is 
vain  ;  ye  are  yet  in  your  sins.  Daring  assertion  !  Christ  cannot 
have  risen  if  we  are  not  to  rise  !  For  all  that  He  is  the  Son  of 
God,  St.  Paul  affirms  this.  Either  He  did  not  rise  from  the  dead, 
or,  in  that  rising.  He  exhibited  the  law  of  the  race  with  which 
He  was  united.  If  He  was  not  the  firstborn  among  many 
brethren  it  was  a  lie  that  He  had  left  the  grave  at  all.  Not 
one  part  of  the  message  He  had  delivered,  but  the  whole  of  it 


324  LECTURE     II. 

was  a  delusion.  It  was  not  the  resurrection  of  the  body  which 
was  gone.  That  resurrection  of  the  soul  which  they  vaunted  of 
was  just  as  imaginary. 

And  then  those  that  have  fallen  asleep  in  Christ  have  perished. 
The  whole  past  world  is  nothing  but  one  dark  horrible  vision  of 
human  souls  born  into  a  world  of  sorrow,  enduring  it  for  three- 
score years  and  ten,  and  then  dying  out  of  it.  If  in  this  life  only, 
he  adds  boldly,  we  have  hope  in  Christ,  we  are  more  wretched 
than  any  men  ;  for  all  have  had  dreams  of  another  life,  of  heroes 
who  have  escaped  the  prison-house  and  entered  into  a  higher 
state,  even  of  a  hero  or  champion  who  might  bring  them  into 
one.  The  privilege  of  exalted  Christians,  it  would  seem,  is  not 
to  have  this  hope.  Christ  has  died  and  risen  that  they  may  be 
content  Vk'ith  the  threescore  years  and  ten,  and  be  content  that 
mankind  should  perish  if  they  can  obtain  a  temporary  felicity. 
That  St.  Paul  meant  this,  and  not  that  he  was  more  miserable  in 
this  life  than  Festus,  or  Berenice,  or  Agrippa,  whom  he  wished  to 
be  both  almost  and  altogether  such  as  he  was,  except  his  bonds,  I 
think  there  can  be  no  doubt.  He  goes  on  with  those  memorable 
words  :  "  But  now  is  Christ  raised  out  of  the  dead,  the  first-fruits 
of  those  that  are  asleep.  For  since  through  man  death,  through 
man  also  resurrection  of  the  dead.  For  as  in  the  Adam  all 
die,  so  also  in  the  Christ  all  shall  be  made  alive."  We  have  here 
an  assertion  as  broad  as  that  which  we  found  in  the  5th  chapter 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  and  exactly  corresponding  to  it. 
There  it  was  said,  that  "  as  through  one  transgression,  or  the 
transgression  of  one — unto  all  men — unto  condemnation,  so  also, 
through  one  just  act,  (or  the  just  act  of  one) — unto  all  men — 
unto  justification  of  life."  There  is  no  limitation  in  either  case  ; 
there  can  be  none,  unless  the  whole  contrast  which  the  passage 
brings  out  is  lost.  The  law  of  death  for  the  race  is  said  to  be 
manifested  in  Adam,  the  law  of  life  for  the  race  in  the  Christ. 
The  Resurrection  has  pioved  the  law  of  life  to  be  stronger  than 
the  law  of  death.  The  Resurrection  has  not  been  to  confirm  the 
hopes  of  a  few  believers  ;  not  to  assure  those  who  came  in  aftet 
days  how  much  better  their  condition  is  than  that  of  their  fathers. 


FIRST     EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  325 

He  is  the  first-fruits  of  those  that  have  slept.  All  the  men  of  the 
past  world  are  concerned  in  his  victory.  It  is  a  victory  over 
their  tyrant.  It  breaks  their  chains.  Theologians  have  tried 
hard  to  make  this  free  gospel  to  humanity  accord  with  their 
narrow  conception  of  its  present  state  and  future  destiny.  But 
the  words  are  too  strong  for  them.  In  trying  to  make  a  salvation 
for  themselves  they  exclude  themselves  ;  they  leave  no  founda- 
tion upon  which  they  can  stand  when  they  have  to  fight,  not  with 
a  school-death,  but  an  actual  death. 

But  every  man,  St.  Paul  says,  is  to  rise  in  his  own  order, 
Christ  the  first-fruits,  afterwards  ol  rod  in  his  presence  Jpcffmu  i^ 
TTj  TzapoufTia^  auToo.  I  quote  the  words  f/iose  who  are  of  Christy 
because  it  seems  to  me  that  our  translators  have  committed  two 
faults  in  rendering  them,  which  though  not  apparently  very  im- 
portant, and  perhaps  difficult  to  avoid,  have  proved  serious 
hinderances  to  the  Christian  student.  The  words,  "  They  that 
are  Christ's,"  have  been  taken  to  mean  faithful  or  godly  people 
who  belong  to  Christ,  so  distinguished  from  the  unfaithful  01 
ungodly  who  are  none  of  His.  Of  course  this  sense  may  be  in 
words,  but  no  one  would  at  once  deduce  it  from  the  Greek. 
Christ  first ;  then  His  attendants,  companions,  or  (to  follow  the 
teaching  of  the  previous  chapters)  the  members  of  His  body.  Who 
those  are  must  be  ascertained  by  considerations  independent  of 
this  verse  ;  that  can  by  itself  exclude  none.  The  other  error  is 
a  far  more  extensive  one,  and  affects  numberless  passages  be- 
sides this.  Ought  -apoofjia  ever  to  be  rendered  "  coming  }  "  Does 
not  the  word  "  appearing  "  or  "  presence  "  convey  the  sense  much 
more  nearly?  Is  there  any  one  instance  of  its  use  to  which  those 
renderings  would  not  be  suitable  .?  is  there  any  one  which  is  not 
somewhat  perverted  and  darkened  by  mixing  with  it  the  idea  of 
locomotion  ? 

I  wish  my  readers  carefully  to  examine  this  question  for  them- 
selves. I  have  not  much  doubt  about  the  result.  But  I  will 
speak  of  the  passage  before  us.  If  we  adopt  the  rendering  of 
our  version,  Christ  is  said  to  be  the  first-fruits  of  an  harvest. 
And  yet  he  is  said  to  have  risen  ages  before  anyone  ear  or  grain 


326  LECTURE     II. 

is  gathered  in.  All  who  were  tlien  dead  or  to  die  for  generations 
after  would  at  some  indefinitely  distant  day  rise  out  of  graves  in 
which  they  had  seen  the  grossest  corruption,  in  accordance  with 
the  precedent,  and  in  obedience  to  the  law,  which  He  established, 
who  saw  no  corruption.  If  the  other  meaning  is  taken,  Christ's 
appearance  or  manifestation  is  the  resurrection  and  deliverance 
of  man  out  of  his  deathly  Adam  conditions.  The  true  Lord 
of  his  life,  the  source  of  all  that  has  been  living  in  his  spirit  and 
body,  awakens  and  renovates  him.  He  comes  into  that  true 
state  which  all  through  his  life  on  earth  he  has  been  conscious 
of,  though  it  has  been  choked  and  hidden  by  so  many  perverse 
accidents  that  he  could  very  imperfectly  realize  it.  I  need  hard- 
ly say  that  such  a  view  of  Christ's  izapuuaia  (presence)  to  each 
man  does  not  interfere  with  the  belief  of  that  gathering  together 
of  all  men  in  Him,  which  the  Apostle  refers  to  elsewhere.  One 
truth  sustains  the  other.  I  do  not  want  people  to  think  less  of 
a  general  appearing  of  Christ.  I  wdsh  them  to  see  how  general, 
how^  universal  the  effect  of  His  appearing  must  be.  If  we  look 
upon  Him  as  the  one  living  Head  and  Root  of  humanity,  we  can- 
not suppose  any  unity  or  gathering  together  of  the  elements 
whereof  humanity  consists  except  in  Him.  Life  involves  union, 
as  Death  is  only  another  name  for  dispersion.  If  Christ's  In- 
carnation and  Death  and  Resurrection  and  Ascension,  and  His 
after  judgments  on  Jersusalem,  declared  Him  to  be  the  Man,  the 
Centre  of  Hummanity,  then  it  is  surely  consistent  that  ever  after 
He  should  be  appearing  or  declaring  Himself  in  this  character ; 
that  the  death  of  every  individual,  as  much  as  the  judgment  of 
every  nation,  should  be  such  an  appearance  or  declaration  ;  and 
that  there  should  be  a  final  and  more  perfect  appearing  which 
should  gather  up  the  threads  of  the  history  of  the  universe,  and 
satisfy  all  the  purposes  of  its  Creator. 

"And  then,"  says  St.  Paul,  "the  end,"  ro  rihtz^  the  point  to 
which  all  Christ's  acts  have  been  tending,  the  accomplishment 
of  the  design  which  has  been  implied  in  them  all.  It  is  not,  I 
conceive,  necessary  to  think  merely  of  that  final  gathering  which 
is,  as  I  said  before,  assumed  in  St.  Paul's  words,  when  we  hear 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  327 

of  this  T^Xoc.  In>the  history  of  each  period  of  the  world,  in  the 
history  of  each  man,  we  may  believe  that  a  purpose  is  carried 
out,  a  divine  intention  realized — one  that  is  expressed  by  the 
words,  ''  The  Son  who  has  been  carrying  on  the  long  battle  in 
that  period — with  that  man — and  beneath  whose  feet  at  last  his 
enemies  have  been  put,  then  presents  the  fruit  of  His  victory  to 
the  Father,  subjects  Himself  to  Him  who  put  all  things  under 
Him,  so  that  God  is  all  in  all."  The  vision  of  a  kingdom  of 
God,  an  eternal  kingdom,  for  which  the  kingdom  of  Christ  is  a 
preparation, — the  kingdom  where  principles  are  in  conflict, 
where  the  world  and  the  flesh  and  the  devil  are  still  contending 
for  the  prize  of  man  and  of  the  earth,  and  often  appear  to  be  con- 
tending successfully — is  one  which  comes  out  very  clearly  in  cer- 
tain passages  of  St.  Paul's  writings ;  but  for  the  fulness  of  which 
we  must  turn  to  the  writings  of  the  beloved  disciple  If  any 
one  supposes  that  that  kingdom  is  one  in  which  the  Son  will 
disappear,  lost  in  the  brightness  of  the  Eternal  Glory,  St.  John 
will  be  the  best  protector  from  so  gloomy  an  anticipation.  The 
Son  revealing  the  Father,  the  Father  revealing  the  Son  ;  the  per- 
petual strife  of  opposite  truths  reconciled  in  the  perfect  Unity  of 
the  Spirit ;  ^this  is  that  great  ri/.oc,  that  satisfying  vision,  to 
which  those  that  have  suffered  with  Christ  may  hope  to  awake, 
not  surely  to  one  where  He  who  has  been  their  only  strength  in 
all  their  warfare  is  no  longer  distinctly  and  personally  present. 

Death,  says  St.  Paul,  is  the  last  enemy  that  is  destroyed  or 
put  down.  Is  put  down,  or  is  fo  be  put  down  ?  The  next  sen- 
tence, which  has  caused  so  much  trouble  to  interpreters,  con- 
tains, I  think,  the  answer.  "  Why  are  they  then  baptized  for  the 
dead  ?  "  Whether  our  translators  found  the  exact  equivalent  to 
i-kp  or  not,  I  cannot  believe  they  were  very  far  wrong.  Every 
explanation  of  the  passage  that  has  been  derived  from  supposed 
usages  in  the  Church,— usages  probably  antedated  to  serve  the 
convenience  of  the  commentators, — itself  requires  an  explanation 
from  some  principle.  The  words  in  the  6th  chapter  of  the  Epis- 
tle to  the  Romans  must  account  for  the  practice,  if  it  existed  ; 
they   account  for   St.  Paul's  language  here,  if  it  did   not  exist. 


328  LECTURE    11. 

The  Christians  were  baptized  for  the  dead.  Baptism  was  a  wit- 
ness that  they  were  planted  in  the  Hkeness  of  Christ's  death,  and 
should  be  of  His  resurrection.  It  declared  them  to  be  dead  with 
Christ,  to  carry  about  death  with  them  through  all  their  pilgrim- 
age ;  but  a  death  which  was  no  longer  solitary,  individualizing, 
antihuman.  It  was  a  human  death,  a  comnion  death,  the  death  of 
Christ,  which  united  them  to  each  other,  not  cut  them  off  from 
each  other.  And  it  was  a  death  which  had  been  overcome.  Not 
only  the  promise  of  a  Resurrection,  but  the  fact  of  a  Resurrection, 
was  contained  in  the  baptism.  It  spoke  of  death  trampled  upon 
already  as  well  as  of  death  to  be  trampled  on  hereafter,  in  the 
case  of  each  person  who  put  on  Christ.  According  to  St.  Paul's 
general  argument,  if  it  imported  either  it  must  import  the  other. 
And  then  what  a  mockery  was  baptism  for  all  who  adopted  the 
Corinthians'  notion  of  a  merely  spiritual  and  past  resurrection  ! 

And  if  that  notion  is  true,  he  goes  on,  "  why  are  we  also  in 
peril  every  hour  t  "  He  touches  here  upon  a  very  grave  and  fer- 
tile question  in  ethics,  the  importance  of  which  later  ages  have 
fully  appreciated.  Apparently  he  decides  it  for  the  Bossuet 
school,  against  the  Fenelon.  The  former  could  easily  extract 
from  his  words  the  moral,  "  We  want  the  promise  of  rewards  to 
enable  us  to  bear  up  against  the  world's  opposition  ;  the  mere 
love  of  God  is  not  of  itself  sufficient.  If  we  were  left  to  that, 
the  motives  to  '  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die,'  would  be 
irresistible."  The  conclusion,  I  think,  is  one-sided  and  hasty, 
though  not  without  a  useful  admonition  to  the  mere  mystical 
dreamer,  who  turns  his  faith  in  the  love  of  God  into  an  excuse 
for  acquiescence  with  all  which  contradicts  that  Love  on  earth. 
How  could  you  trust  it,  if  you  supposed  it  was  working  out  no 
result,  was  triumphing  over  no  enemies,  was  finding  miseries  and 
curses  and  leaving  them  ?  Eating  and  drinking  is  a  refuge,  the 
only  one  to  be  found,  from  the  dreariness  of  such  a  faith.  But 
It  was  not  the  thought  of  a  selfish  prize  which  kept  the  Apostle 
from  giving  the  reins  to  his  appetites.  He  was  too  practical  and 
honest  not  to  prefer  a  present  gratification  to  the  mere  dream  of 
a  reversionary  one.     The  thought  that  God  would  not  disappoint 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  329 

those  who  believed  in  Him,  that  He  would  prove  Himself  migh- 
tier than  sin  and  death  and  hell,  made  him  ready  to  fight  with 
beasts  or  men  at  Ephesus,  and  to  die  daily, — as  he  swore  by 
that  gladness  and  triumph  which  he  had,  and  which  they  might 
share  with  him  in  Christ  their  common  Lord,  that  he  did.  And 
to  this  hope  and  confidence  he  called  them  to  awake.  They  w^ere 
substituting  theories  about  the  resurrection,  refinements  which 
could  stand  the  shock  of  no  trial,  for  trust  in  God  and  the  knowl- 
edge of  Him.  They  were  encouraging  each  other  in  these  bad 
habits.  They  were  fostered  by  their  sects  and  clubs.  Let  them 
seek  that  higher  blessing  which  it  was  a  shame  for  members  of 
a  Church  to  want. 

"  But  some  one  will  say.  How  are  the  dead  raised  up  ?  And 
with  what  kind  of  body  do  they  come  ?  Fool  !  that  which  thou 
sowest  is  not  quickened  except  it  die.  And  what  thou  sowest  is 
not  the  body  that  is  to  become,  but  the  naked  grain,  it  may  chance 
of  wheat  or  of  some  of  the  other  grains.  But  God  giveth  it  a  body 
as  He  will,  and  to  each  seed  its  own  proper  body." 

The  question  of  the  doubter  is  here  twofold.  What  is  the 
manner  of  resurrection  .?  And  what  kind  of  body  can  those  have 
who  seem  to  have  cast  aside  what  has  been  called  body  here  ? 
Both  questions  were  precisely  such  as  would  have  occurred  to 
Greeks  who  had  heard  that  the  body,  in  the  judgment  of  the  phi- 
losopher, was  merely  a  carcase,  the  prison-house  of  a  nobler 
principle,  and  that  he  looked  for  an  absorption  of  the  particular 
life  into  some  general  essence.  Yet  St.  Paul  treats  them  with 
unusual  contempt.  He  wishes  the  Corinthians  to  feel  how  little 
earnest  reflection  upon  facts  was  implied  in  their  fine  specula- 
tions. If  they  would  but  consider  quietly  for  a  few  moments  the 
things  with  which  they  were  most  familiar,  how  much  they  might 
learn  which  the  wisest  doctor  could  not  tell  them.  They  expect 
a  resurrection  for  the  seed  which  they  put  into  the  ground. 
They  look  for  it  to  come  up  some  day,  do  they  not }  They  ex- 
pect the  seed  of  wheat  to  bring  forth  wheat,  of  rye  to  bring  forth 
rye.  But  it  lies  in  the  ground  ;  it  dies.  And,  when  it  comes  up 
again,  is  it  the  least  like   that  which  was   deposited  ?     Yet  it  is 


330  LECTURE    II. 

identical  with  that.  They  have  no  doubt  about  it.  God  has 
given  the  seed  a  body — a  new  body — and  yet  it  is  its  own  body, 
though  so  changed  from  the  seed.  Does  not  this  analogy  go 
through  nature  ?  Is  it  only  seeds  that  are  different  from  each 
other,  or  only  the  bodies  which  seeds  produce.?  Is  not  the  flesh 
of  men  different  from  the  flesh  of  beasts,  the  flesh  of  beasts  from 
that  of  birds,  theirs  from  that  of  fishes  ?  Are  the  heavenly  bodies 
like  the  bodies  upon  earth  ?  Can  you  compare  the  one  with  the 
other  ?  Nay,  is  not  there  a  difference  in  degree,  though  not  in 
kind,  in  the  glory  of  those  heavenly  bodies  ?  Is  not  one  star 
more  conspicuous  than  another  ?  The  preservation  of  the  type, 
and  the  distinction  of  forms  is  in  accordance  with  the  law  which 
we  trace  through  all  God's  works.  What  wonder  then  if  out  of 
a  perishable  seed  there  rises  that  which  is  imperishable,  out  of  an 
insignificant  seed  that  which  is  glorious,  out  of  a  feeble  seed  that 
which  is  mighty  ;  in  the  case  of  man  out  of  a  psychical  bod}^  a 
spiritual  body?  "  For,"  he  goes  on,  "  there  is  a  psychical  body, 
and  there  is  a  spiritual."  Then  he  cites  Genesis.  It  is  written, 
"  The  first  Adam  became  a  living  soul,"  adding  his  own  com- 
ment, "  the  last  Adam  became  a  quickening  spirit." 

Here  is  St.  Paul's  satisfactory  explanation  of  his  own  argu- 
ment. Here  is  that  which  connects  it  with  the  previous  words, 
"  As  in  Adam  all  die,  so  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive."  And 
here  is  the  confutation  of  the  vulgar  gloss  which  has  been  put 
upon  the  passage  I  have  been  dwelling  on,  when  it  has  been 
supposed  to  intimate  that  the  sowing  of  the  seed  in  the  ground 
is  the  type  of  putting  the  mortal  remains  of  a  man  into  the  earth. 
How  can  any  one  read  these  glorious  sentences  in  which  the 
Apostle  travels,  from  earth  to  heaven,  and  heaven  to  earth,  and 
then  suppose  that  the  basis  of  them  is  a  petty  accidental  re- 
semblance, a  kind  of  pun,  which  one  would  blush  to  meet  with  in 
the  poorest  rhetorician !  No  ;  the  seed  is  not  sown  when  the 
man  ceases  to  dwell  in  this  world.  That  which  he  inherits  from 
his  parents,  that  which  belongs  to  him  as  the  child  of  Adam, 
that  which  has  gone  already  through  a  death-process  in  his 
mother's  womb,  that  which   he  bears  with   him  through   all  his 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  33 1 

pilgrimage,  that  is  it  which  is  sown  in  corruption,  in  dishonor,  in 
weakness  ;  that  is  it  to  which  the  quickening  life  of  the  second 
Adam  comes,  which  this  life  penetrates  and  purifies  that  it  may- 
be raised  in  incorruption,  in  glory,  in  power.  All  the  former 
part  of  the  chapter  is  at  variance  with  itself  upon  any  other  hy- 
pothesis, still  more,  I  think,  that  which  remains  of  it.  The  spir- 
itual body,  he  says,  does  not  come  first,  but  the  psychical.  The 
first  man  is  out  of  the  earth  earthy,  the  second  man  (Lachmann 
omits  the  6  xOfjcoz,  perhaps  rightly)  out  of  heaven.  As  is  the 
earthy,  such  also  are  the  earthy,  and  as  is  the  heavenly,  such  also 
are  the  heavenly.  And  as  we  have  borne  the  image  of  the 
earthy,  so  shall  we  bear  the  image  of  the  heavenly. 

The  twofold  condition  of  man  is  set  forth  in  these  verses  just 
as  St.  Paul  sets  it  forth  everywhere  else,  only  with  a  new  appli- 
cation. The  divine  root,  the  Christ,  is  the  true  ground  of  all  life, 
redemption,  resurrection,  for  the  man  himself,  for  his  soul  and 
his  body.  The  old  Adam  is  the  root  of  the  curse  and  of  the 
death.  To  bear  the  image  of  the  earthly  is  to  bear  the  image  of 
death.  To  bear  the  image  of  Christ  the  heavenly  one,  is  to  have 
life  and  resurrection.  "  For,"  he  proceeds,  "this  I  say,  brethren, 
that  flesh  and  blood  are  not  able  to  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God, 
neither  shall  corruption  inherit  incorruption."  Surely  if  there 
were  no  other  text  in  the  Bible,  this  might  settle  the  question 
whether  that  which  we  give  earth  to  earth,  ashes  to  ashes,  dust 
to  dust,  that  which  is  corruption,  if  any  thing  in  the  world  is  cor- 
ruption, is  that  body  which  is  to  be  made  like  Christ's  glorious 
body,  which  is  to  inherit  His  incorruption.  If  flesh  and  blood 
did  indeed  constitute  that  body  the  contemplation  of  which  threw 
the  Psalmist  into  a  rapture — if  when  the  blood  ceases  to  flow, 
and  the  flesh  becomes  torpid,  all  its  marvellous  powers  and  en- 
ergies are  dried  up  and  exhausted — we  might  go  to  the  charnel- 
house  to  look  for  the  only  proof  that  the  voice  which  once  spoke 
to  us  may  speak  again,  that  the  light  which  beamed  from  the 
countenance  may  not  be  for  ever  quenched  in  darkness.  But  if 
every  worci  that  ever  cheered  us  came  from  the  Divine  Word,  if 
every  smile  was   a  witness  of  His  presence  in  whom  is  the  ful- 


332  LECTURE     II. 

ness  of  joy,  why  may  not  the  body  as  well  as  the  spidt  be  now 
dwelling  in  that  kingdom  into  which  flesh  and  blood  can  never 
enter  ? 

"  Behold,"  says  the  Apostle,  "  I  declare  to  you  a  mystery." 
The  words  which  follow  are  susceptible  of  two  directly  opposite 
meanings.  Our  translators  sa},  "  We  shall  not  all  sleep,  but  we 
shall  all  be  changed."  Accordmg  to  Lachmann's  punctuation  it 
would  be,  "  We  shall  all  sleep,  but  we  shall  not  all  be  changed." 
I  do  not  think  that  there  can  be  a  reasonable  doubt  in  any  man's 
mind,  however,  who  reads  the  following  verse,  that  the  old  con- 
struction is  the  true  one,  and  that  Lachmann  has  sacrificed  the 
peculiarity  of  St.  Paul's  style,  as  well  as  his  consistency,  for  the 
sake  of  preserving  what  may  possibly  be  a  more  regular  con- 
struction. For  to  what  does  "  the  moment,  the  twinkling  of.  an 
eye,  the  last  trump,"  refer,  il  the  preceding  words  are  "  we  shall 
not  be  changed  }  "  Or  what  becomes  of  the  following  clause,  in 
which  it  is  said  that  "  the  trumpet  will  sound,  and  the  dead  will 
be  raised  incorruptible,  and  we  s/m//  be  changed  ? 

One  cannot,  for  an  instant,  suspect  Lachmann  of  any  thing  but 
a  kind  of  philological  wilfulness  in  departing  from  the  common 
mode  of  stopping  the  sentence.  But  there  are  certainly  some 
who  might  find  it  theologically  convenient  to  make  the  Apostle 
speak  according  to  his  fashion.  If  there  could  be  the  peremp- 
tory assertion,  "  we  shall  all  sleep,"  how  much  strength  would 
the  theories  of  those  acquire  who  make  it  a  fundamental  article 
of  their  creed,  that  there  shall  be  thousands  of  years  during 
which  the  remains  of  dead  bodies  lie  in  their  graves,  and  during 
which  disembodied  souls  slumber  in  a  kind  of  forgetfulness,  and 
that  then  at  the  sound  of  the  archangel's  trumpet  every  morsel 
of  dust  and  corruption  will  attach  itself  again  to  the  creature 
which  it  oppressed  during  his  sojourn  on  earth  ?  But  this, 
though  a  very  great,  and,  I  think,  a  very  frightful,  marvel,  is  ex- 
ceedingly unlike  the  Apostle's  idea  of  a  mystery.  That  renova- 
tion and  resurrection  which  he  has  been  speaking  of,  he  tells  us 
has  its  parallels  throughout  all  nature ;  this,  by  th^  confession 
of  those  who  speak  most  of  it,  is  absolutely  unparalleled.    Every 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  333 

law  which  man  has  ever  recognized  or  believed  in  is  outraged 
by  it.  But  what  law  is  violated,  what  law  is  not  fulfilled,  by 
that  unseen  transformation  in  a  moment,  in  the  twinkling  of  an 
eye,  which  finishes  the  long  wrestling  of  the  body  with  its  case 
of  death,  which  announces  the  triumph  of  the  second  Adam  ? 
What  St.  Paul  would  seem  to  be  telling  the  Corinthians  here  is 
that  those  who  were  dead,  those  who  had  fallen  asleep  before 
Christ's  coming  in  the  flesh,  would  just  as  much  share  in  the  glo- 
rious resurrection  which  He  had  obtained  for  them  as  those  who 
were  alive  then.  Their  flesh  and  blood  would  not  inherit  the  king- 
dom of  God  any  more  than  the  flesh  and  blood  of  their  succes- 
sors. The  corruption  of  the  one  would  as  little  inherit  incorrup- 
tion  as  the  corruption  of  the  other.  But  the  bodies  of  one  as 
much  as  the  bodies  of  the  other,  would  hear  the  voice  of  the  Son 
of  Man.  That  voice  of  the  archangel  which  on  Sinai  had  pro- 
claimed the  law  of  death,  would  proclaim  through  all  God's  uni- 
verse, in  full  clear  notes,  that  death  was  swallowed  up  in  victory, 
that  the  last  enemy  had  been  vanquished.  That  voice  which  all 
the  invisible  world  would  hear  and  would  echo,  could  be  re- 
peated even  here,  in  this  visible  world,  by  the  inspired  Apostle. 
"Where,  O  Death,  is  thy  sting?  Where,  O  Grave,  is  thy  vic- 
tory.^ The  sting  of  death  is  sin  ;  the  strength  of  sin  is  the  Law. 
Thanks  be  to  God  that  giveth  us  the  victory  through  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ." 


CHAPTER    XVL 

This  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  is  so  living  and  practical  a 
one,  that  it  is  in  as  close  contact  with  all  earthly  and  common 
things  as  it  is  with  the  heavenly  world.  "  Therefore,  my  beloved 
brethren,"  he  says,  'be  firm,  unmoved,  always  abounding  in  the 
work  of  the  Lord,  forasmuch  as  ye  know  that  your  labor  is  not 
in  vain  in  the  Lord."  And  so  he  proceeds  to  speak  of  the  col- 
lections which  were  to  be  made  on  the  first  day  of  the  week,  of 
his  own  journeys,  of  his  desire  to  come  and  winter  with  them,  of 


334  LECTURE     II. 

Timothy  and  Apollos,  and  the  house  of  Stephanas,  of  the  friends 
that  were  greeting  them  at  a  distance,  of  their  greetings  to  each 
other.  Those  men  who  were  exalting  the  soul,  and  tearing  and 
rending  the  Church  for  the  sake  of  their  fine  notions,  could  not 
touch  the  common  earth,  could  only  dwell  in  the  clouds.  But 
he  who  believed  that  the  Son  of  God,  the  Lord  of  Glory,  had 
dwelt  upon  earth  and  hallowed  it  and  redeemed  it,  that  He  was 
the  Head  of  the  whole  body,  the  quickening  Spirit  of  each  of  its 
members,  he  felt  that  nothing  was  too  glorious  for  humanity, 
nothing  mean  for  him  who  was  the  minister  of  it  and  of  its  Lord. 
He  could  say,  as  he  had  said  in  the  sterner  parts  of  his  epistle, 
"  If  any  one  loves  not  the  Lord," — if  he  sets  up  his  own  pride 
and  fancies  against  Him, — "let  him  be  Anathema;"  he  must 
be  so.  But  he  could  say  in  the  very  same  spirit,  "  The  grace  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  you.  My  love  be  with  you  all  in 
Christ  Jesus.     Amen." 


SECOND  EPISTLE  TO  THE  CORINTHIANS. 


I  HAVE  examined  with  some  carefulness  two  of  the  Pauline 
Epistles,  which  are  admitted  to  be  genuine  by  the  school  of  Bauer. 
Different  as  they  are  in  their  scope  and  occasion,  I  think  we 
have  discovered  in  them  the  traces  of  a  common  design.  One 
as  little  as  the  other  is  written  to  establish  the  formal  doctrine  of 
justification  by  faith.  One  as  much  as  the  other  sets  forth 
Christ  as  the  common  foundation  upon  which  Jew  and  Gentile 
could  stand,  the  bond  of  human  society,  the  root  of  human  right- 
eousness. In  trying  to  ascertain  whether  the  remaining  ten 
Epistles  bear  the  same  tokens  I  shall  be  much  less  minute,  lest 
the  object  of  these  lectures  should  be  lost  sight  of  through  my  at- 
tention to  details,  and  lest  I  should  seem  to  aim  at  supplying  my 
reader  with  a  commentary,  not  to  assist  him  in  reading  the  New 
Testament  for  himself.  . 

The  Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  has  a  manifest  connec- 
tion with  the  First,  yet  they  are  so  different  in  their  character, 
and  in  the  subjects  of  which  they  treat,  that  many  seem  to  re- 
gard the  external  links  between  them  as  the  only  proofs  that  they 
were  addressed  tc^  the  same  persons.  Few,  however,  can  fail 
to  perceive  that  at  least  one  of  the  threads  which  was  woven  into 
the  web  of  the  first  letter  runs  through  the  second.  The  ques- 
tion of  the  honor  which  is  due  to  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  arose 
naturally  there  out  of  the  remarks  on  the  false  honor  which  the 
Corinthians  were  putting  upon  them.  In  the  second  letter  the 
subject  takes  a  more  personal  form,  is  more  connected  with  con- 
flicts and  griefs,  ecstasies  and  humiliations,  in  the  Apostle's  own 
mind  ;  but  it  does  not  less  concern  the  peculiar  habits  of  the 
Corinthian  Church,  or  the  order  of  all  Christian  society. 

The  Apostle  had  spoken  in  the  close  of  his  last  letter  of  visit- 
in?  Corinth.     He  had  not  executed  his  purpose.     Some  mem 


336  LECTURE    II. 

bers  of  the  Church  seem  to  have  suspected  him  of  making  such 
promises  carelessly  or  lightly.  He  protests  against  the  imputa- 
tion. He  had  not  put  off  his  visit  inconsiderately,  but  deliber- 
ately. He  believed  it  was  better  for  them  that  he  should  not 
come  at  once.  He  was  anxious,  it  seems,  that  they  should  exer- 
cise their  own  free  judgment  in  the  case  of  the  person  whom  he 
had  pronounced  excommunicate.  He  did  not  wish  to  oppress 
that  person  or  them  by  his  presence.  He  had  therefore  sent 
Titus  to  them  instead  of  going  himself.  He  was  greatly  delighted 
with  the  news  Titus  had  brought  him  of  the  way  in  which  they 
received  his  letter,  of  the  impression  which  it  had  made  upon 
them,  of  their  zeal  to  relieve  themselves  of  the  guilt  in  which 
he  had  told  them  they  were  sharers.  He  conceives  they  have 
done  all  that  was  required  of  them  in  punishing  the  incest- 
uous offender ;  he  was  content,  and  even  anxious,  that  they 
should  now  forgive  him.  Their  forgiveness  would  be  his,  as 
their  punishment  had  been  his. 

The  Apostle  dwells  with  characteristic  fervor  and  animation 
upon  this  part  of  the  report  which  Titus  had  made  to  him.  His 
expressions  of  satisfaction  are  proportioned  to  the  severity  of  his 
previous  rebukes.  It  is  evident  that  there  were  other  observations 
made  by  his  friend  and  messenger  which  were  not  equally  grat- 
ifying. The  Apostle  hints  with  great  delicacy  and  courtes}^,  but 
with  some  irony,  that  the  Corinthians  had  promised  a  collection 
for  the  suffering  members  of  other  churches  which  they  had  not 
yet  made  ;  that  the  Macedonians,  with  less  pretensions  and  less 
means,  had  done  more  ;  that  it  would  be  well  for  their  honor  as 
well  as  his,  if  his  boasting  of  them  was  not  proved  to  be  untrue. 

It  is  also  clear  that  the  jealousies  and  suspicions  which  had 
existed  against  the  Apostle  himself,  and  were  stirred  up  by  the 
rival  parties,  had  not  been  removed  by  his  epistle,  but  had  taken 
a  new  form  in  consequence  of  it.  "  He  can  write  powerfully," 
said  his  opponents,  "  when  he  is  at  a  distance  ;  but  how  feeble 
he  is  when  he  is  among  us ! "  The  simple  form  in  which  he  had 
presented  his  Gospel,  the  little  pains  he  had  taken  to  adapt  it  to 
the  refined  palates  of  intellectual  people,  were  still  causes  of  of- 


SECOND    EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  33/ 

fence.  There  were  man\^  who  represented  him  as  only  half  an 
apostle,  without  the  outward  designation  of  one,  without  the 
proofs  of  a  commission  which  those  of  the  circumcision  had,  or 
the  eloquence  which  belonged  to  Apollos.  The  old  leaven  was 
evidently  at  work.  False  apostles,  mere  traders  in  a  Gospel, 
who  would  have  been  inferior  sophists  among  heathens,  were 
doing  their  utmost  to  establish  their  own  reputation  by  under- 
mining Paul.  Vanity,  party-spirit,  self-exaltation,  were  still  pain- 
fully characteristic  of  the  Church.  And  where  these  existed, 
however  much  there  might  be  of  genuine  sorrow  for  a  particular 
offence,  even  of  practical  amendment,  there  could  not  be  that 
repentance  and  reformation  which  spring  from  a  full  knowledge 
of  the  evil  that  each  man  has  in  himself.  The  old  sensual  cor- 
ruptions, as  well  as  the  old  intellectual  conceits,  would  manifest 
themselves  as  they  had  done  before. 

Such  being  the  external  circumstances  which  suggested  the 
epistle,  St.  Paul,  if  he  had  had  no  other  impulse,  might  naturally 
have  discoursed  on  his  own  position  and  powers,  or  more  gen- 
erally on  the  position  and  powers  of  an  apostle.  But  there  was 
that  in  himself  which  more  mightily  compelled  him  to  speak 
upon  this  subject,  and  which  prevented  him  from  treating  it  in  a 
dry,  didactic  method.  He  says  in  the  commencement  of  the 
letter,  which  is  even  more  than  ordinarily  the  guide  to  all  the 
contents  of  it,  that  he  would  not  have  them  ignorant  of  the  con- 
flict which  came  upon  him  in  Asia,  that  he  was  distressed  out  of 
measure,  that  he  despaired  even  of  life.  Ke  rejoices  in  this  con- 
flict because  it  has  shown  him  the  death  which  is  in  himself,  and 
the  life  which  is  in  Christ ;  because  it  has  taught  him  not  to 
trust  in  himself,  but  in  Him  who  raises  the  dead.  He  rejoices 
in  it,  further,  because  he  believes  that  the  consolation  which  he 
has  received  will  affect  others  as  well  as  himself,  that  as  he  has 
known  the  sorrows  of  others  in  himself,  so  they  will  share  also 
in  his  thanksgiving. 

This  certainty  that  what  he  has  gone  through  has  been  for  the 
sake  of  others,  that  he  has  been  entering  into  human  grief  and 
human  joy  as  Christ  himself  did,  gives  him  a  sense  of  the  nature 

22 


338  LECTURE    II. 

of  his  ministry  which  all  his  previous  experience  had  not  imparted 
to  him.  Down  in  the  depths  of  his  own  being  he  had  been 
learning  what  a  Gospel  of  life  he  had  to  preach,  how  close  to 
every  man  lies  the  death  from  which  that  Gospel  announces  de- 
liverance. It  is  awful  to  think  of  the  power  of  his  own  words, 
what  mysteries  he  has  been  proclaiming  to  human  beings,  how 
the  knowledge  of  those  mysteries  may  harden  and  stupefy  the 
hearts  which  it  does  not  purify.  The  mere  trader  in  the  divine 
word  has  no  such  sense  of  the  fearfulness  of  his  vocation ;  but 
one  who  is  determined  to  speak  it  out  in  sincerity  as  God's  mes- 
sage must  feel  his  own  insufficiency. 

Even  the  announcement  of  this  determination  sounds  to  him 
almost  like  a  vaunt,  or  as  if  he  wished  to  commend  himself  to 
the  Corinthians.  But  that  is  not  his  meaning.  He  wants  no 
commendatory  letters  to  them  or  from  them.  He  desires  to 
grave  his  letters  in  their  hearts,  that  they  may  themselves  be  his 
epistles.  For  this  is  the  character  of  the  New  Testament  minis- 
try, this  is  its  contrast  with  the  Old.  It  is  not  written  on  stones, 
but  in  the  heart.  It  does  not  stand  outside  of  the  man  as  a 
ministry  of  law  and  of  terror,  but  comes  to  his  own  self  as  an  ef- 
fective ministry  of  righteousness.  It  is  not  the  exhibition  of  God 
under  a  veil,  but  the  manifestation  of  His  unveiled  face  in  Christ 
to  the  creature  which  is  made  in  His  image. 

On  this  account,  St.  Paul  tells  the  Corinthians  who  had  com- 
plained of  him  for  his  plainness  that  he  is  bound  to  use  great 
simplicity  of  speech.  Those  who  maintained  the  Old  Testament 
ministry  against  the  New,  might  indeed  clothe  their  speech  in 
symbols,  as  Moses  had  hid  his  face  with  a  veil.  They  could  not 
look  to  the  end  of  that  which  was  abolished,  for  the  veil  was 
upon  their  hearts,  that  Old  Testament  veil  which  was  done  away 
in  Christ.  When  they  turned  round  to  the  Lord,  the  Ruler  of 
their  spirits,  the  veil  would  be  taken  away,  and  they  would  have 
the  true  spiritual  liberty.  Meantime,  we  who  have  confessed 
Him,  with  unveiled  face  beholding  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  are 
changed  into  the  same  image  from  glory  to  glory,  even  as  by  the 
Lord's  Spirit. 


SECOND    EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  339 

Here  then  is  the  full  explanation  of  what  he  had  said  before. 
There  must  be  no  craft  or  trickery  in  the  management  of  this 
word  of  God.  The  New  Testament  minister  must  by  manifesta- 
tion of  the  truth  commend  himself  to  every  man's  conscience  in 
the  sight  of  God.  And  what  if  with  all  our  boldness  and  plain- 
ness, there  is  still  a  veil  over  the  Gospel,  the  veil  is  not  in  it,  but 
in  the  hearts  of  those  that  believe  not,  whose  thoughts  the  god  of 
this  world  has  blinded,  so  that  the  light  of  the  Gospel  of  the 
glory  of  Christ,  who  is  the  image  of  God,  does  not  shine  nito 
them.  For  it  is  not  ourselves  we  are  preaching,  but  Him,  the 
Illuminator  of  our  hearts,  in  whose  face  the  glory  of  God  is  made 

known  to  us.  . 

And  since  it  was  not  himself  that  he  preached,  but  Christ, 
they  might  see  why  he  had  to  go  through  such  conflicts  as  that  of 
which  he  had  spoken.  It  was  that  the  mere  individual  man 
might  be  crushed,  and  that  the  Christ  might  be  revealed  m  all 
His  power  to  the  hearers  as  well  as  to  the  preacher.  Through 
this  came  out  his  own  faith  in  the  power  of  the  risen  Christ, 
through  this,  his  ability  to  speak  of  it.  The  outside  man  was 
consuming  in  these  fires,  the  inner  man  was  becoming  renewed 
day  by  day.  An  invisible  and  eternal  glory  was  manifesting  it- 
self and  working  itself  out  through  these  afflictions.  He  knew  it 
to  be  so  whenever  his  mind  was  fixed  not  upon  the  things  seen 
but  the  things  unseen  -  for  the  things  seen  were  for  a  moment,  the 
things  not  seen  were  eternal.  r  r^,    ■ 

This  contrast  between  that  invisible  and  eternal  glory  of  Christ 
which  was  revealing  itself  in  them  and  through  them  leads  to 
the  memorable  passage  respecting  the  earthly  house  of  this  taber- 
nacle and  the  building  of  God,  the  house  not  made  with  hands 
eternal  in  the  heavens,  which  is  expanded  through  the  fifth 
chapter.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  that  chapter  could  not  have  been 
written  even  by  an  Apostle  who  had  not  passed,  and  very  re- 
cently passed,  through  the  agony  which  he  has  recorded.  Not  a 
single  sentence  of  it  is  intelligible  if  we  forget  that  personal  ex- 
pertence,  or  the  results  of  it  which  have  been  referred  to  in  the 
former  part  of  the  letter.     If  it  is  regarded  as  a  mere  history  of 


340  LECTURE    II. 

a  man  balancing  the  future  life  against  the  present  life,  the  world 
before  death  with  the  world  after  death,  its  whole  meaning,  either 
as  it  concerns  the  writer  or  the  reader,  is  shrivelled  and  exhaust- 
ed. But  if  it  is  the  new  Adam  in  the  man  struggling  with  the 
old,  if  it  is  the  man  claiming  his  portion  in  a  divine  and  immortal 
Lord,  confident  of  a  new  life  for  his  body  and  spirit  in  Him,  con- 
fident that  that  life  is  for  his  brethren  as  well  as  himself,  and 
therefore  willing  that  his  present  tabernacle  should  fall  to  pieces 
whenever  it  pleases  God  that  it  should,  though  perfectly  content 
to  groan  in  it  while  that  is  his  appointed  lot ;  then  we  can  under- 
stand why  he  should  speak  of  walking  by  faith,  not  by  sight,  of 
being  absent  from  the  body  and  present  with  the  Lord,  of  desir- 
ing, whether  absent  or  present,  to  be  acceptable  to  Him.  Then 
we  can  understand  why  he  should  anticipate  for  all  men  a  mani- 
festation before  Christ  the  Lord  of  their  spirits,  that  each  may 
receive  the  things  done  through  the  instrumentality  of  the  body, 
whether  that  be  good  or  ill.  And  we  can  see  how  he  connects 
this  with  what  has  gone  before  respecting  the  character  of  his 
ministry, — with  his  zeal,  knowing  the  fear  of  God,  to  persuade 
men, — with  his  hope  that  his  word  is  not  only  manifest  to  God, 
but  manifest  in  their  consciences.  And  one  can  see  why  with 
this  confidence  he  should  care  very  little  whether  he  passed  for 
a  madman  or  a  sober  man  in  the  estimate  of  those  critics  who 
judged  by  the  mere  outside.  The  love  of  Christ  was  pressing 
him  to  speak ;  for  he  had  come  to  this  conclusion,  that  if  One 
died  for  all,  then  were  all  dead,  and  that  he  died  for  all,  that 
those  who  live  should  not  live  to  themselves,  but  to  Him  who 
died  for  them  and  rose  again.  And  thus  too  we  can  attach  some 
meaning  to  those  great  words  which  follow  :  "  So,  if  this  be  so, 
if  there  is  this  Lord  over  our  spirits,  and  to  speak  of  Him  is  our 
work,  and  to  know  him  is  our  reward,  henceforth  know  we  no 
man  after  the  flesh  ;  yea,  though  we  have  known  Christ  after  the 
flesh,  yet  now  henceforth  know  we  Him  no  more.  He  is  re- 
vealed to  us  as  the  Lord  from  heaven,  as  the  Author  of  a  new 
creation,  so  that  if  any  man  is  in  Christ  he  is  a  new  creature ; 
the  old  things  have  passed  away,  behold,  all  things  have  become 


SECOND    EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS.  34I 

new.  And  all  things,"  he  says,  "are  of  that  God  who  had  rec- 
onciled us  to  Himself  through  Jesus  Christ,  and  hath  given  to 
us  the  ministry  of  reconciliation,"  All  things  must  be  contem- 
plated as  grounded  in  Him,  as  proceeding  from  Him.  We  are 
to  testify  "  that  God  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  to  Him- 
self, not  reckoning  their  trespasses  to  them,  and  putting  in  us 
the  word  of  reconciliation."  Here  is  the  statement  of  the  object 
of  that  ministry,  the  preparation  for  which  he  had  been  explain- 
ing to  us  before. 

He  is  then  an  ambassador  for  Christ.  God  is  exhorting  them 
by  him.  He  is  praying  them  for  Christ's  sake,  to  be  reconciled 
to  God.  Being  able  to  announce  that  the  reconciliation  is  ac- 
complished, that  He  who  knew  no  sin  has  been  made  sin  that 
we  might  be  made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  Him,  all  he  has 
to  do  is  to  beseech  them  not  to  receive  the  grace  which  has  been 
given  to  them  in  vain.  They  have  heard  of  a  gracious  or  accept- 
able time,  a  day  of  jubilee.  It  is  now  ;  the  day  is  come.  And 
he  and  those  who  are  the  heralds  of  that  day,  the  messengers  of 
the  New  Testament  reconciliation,  are  bound  in  nothing  to  give 
offence  ;  in  all  things  to  show  that  they  are  God's  ministers,  ex 
hibiting  in  themselves  that  contrast  between  power  and  weak- 
ness, glory  and  shame,  death  and  life,  which  they  preach  with 
their  lips  when  they  preach  Christ's  Cross  and  Resurrection,  and 
say  that  men  are  to  learn  from  these  God's  will  and  their  own 
condition. 

The  Apostle  has  poured  out  his  heart  to  the  Corinthians  ;  he 
has  shown  them  that  in  his  secret  battles  he  has  been  fighting 
for  them  as  much  as  for  himself.  Now  he  beseeches  them  for  a 
return,  not  a  cold,  dry,  critical  appreciation  of  his  eloquence,  or 
a  comparison  of  him  with  other  doctors,  but  the  sympathy  of 
churchmen,  if  not  the  affection  of  children  to  a  father.  To  many 
it  may  seem  that  his  exhortation  not  to  be  unequally  yoked  with 
unbelievers,  though  needful  in  itself,  is  out  of  place  here.  Biit 
the  knowledge  which  the  first  epistle  gives  us  of  the  Corinthians, 
enables  us  to  see  its  appropriateness,  and  the  sense  which  it 
must  bear.     The   Corinthian   Christians  were  willing  enough  to 


342  LECTURE    II. 

exalt  themselves  above  heathens,  and  to  pass  judgment  upon  them. 
But  the  habits  of  heathens  they  had  not  cast  aside,  the  real  glory 
of  their  Christian  fellowship  they  had  not  understood.  In  nothing 
was  the  old  Pagan  temper  more  conspicuous  than  in  the  way 
of  estimating  their  teachers.  The  most  dividing  and  demoraliz- 
ing tendencies  of  old  Greece,  those  which  were  least  compatible 
with  the  existence  of  one  body  with  many  members,  broke  out  in 
their  comparison  of  Paul  with  Apollos,  in  their  desire  to  treat 
them  both  as  sophists,  not  as  divine  ambassadors.  The  exhorta- 
tion to  come  out  and  be  separate  from  these  unbelieving  habits, 
is  therefore  a  natural  sequel  to  what  the  Apostle  has  said 
already,  an  introduction  to  what  he  is  about  to  say  of  himself  and 
his  work. 

It  IS  sometimes  thought  that  the  latter  part  of  this  Epistle  has 
an  almost  painfully  personal  character  ;  so  much  is  said  of  the 
suspicions  of  the  Corinthians ;  of  false  Apostles  ;  of  St.  Paul's 
revelations  ;  of  his  sufferings  and  humiliations.  Doubtless  if 
this  part  of  the  letter  were  separated  from  the  other  and  were 
not  interpreted  by  it,  we  should  not  be  able  to  account  for  these 
allusions ;  we  might  have  thought  that  the  man  had  got  the  bet- 
ter of  the  ambassador.  But  when  we  have  learnt  how  essentially 
the  man  and  the  ambassador  are  one,  how  impossible  it  is  that 
they  should  ever  be  separated  unless  the  office  is  ill  discharged, 
or  the  human  creature  becomes  a  merely  selfish  one,  the  con- 
fession of  personal  grievances  and  sufferings,  the  "folly,"  to  use 
his  own  language,  the  boasting,  the  shame,  are  not  merely  reve- 
lations of  a  character  which  we  should  rejoice  to  meet  with  else- 
where, but  are  in  the  strictest  sense  such  revelations  of  the  re- 
lation between  God  and  his  creatures,  and  of  the  close  bonds  by 
which  one  man  is  related  to  another,  as  we  look  for  in  our  Bible, 
and  we  shall  find  very  imperfectly  except  there. 

I  have  alluded  to  the  communications  which  he  had  received 
from  Titus.  There  is  nothing  unnatural  or  violent  in  the  transi- 
tion to  these.  We  feel  that  they  have  been  worked  into  the  tis- 
sue of  the  Apostle's  own  life,  that  they  have  mingled  with  the 
pains  and  consolations  with  which  he   has   already  made   us  ac- 


SECOND    EPISTLE    TO    THJE    CORINTHIANS.  343 

quainted.  I  have  remarked  that  he  dwells  first  on  the  pleasant 
part  of  the  news,  passes  gradually  to  that  which  is  less  encourag- 
ing, comes  at  last  upon  that  which  is  most  discreditable  to  his 
disciples  and  most  bitter  to  himself.  The  subject  of  the  Epistle 
is  never  forsfotten.  The  keen  satisfaction  of  the  minister  of 
Christ  in  any  symptoms  of  good  or  improvement  in  his  children, 
his  clear  and  tender  perception  of  their  weaknesses,  illustrate  the 
doctrine  that  has  been  previously  unfolded.  Only  when  he  comes 
to  the  injustice  of  the  Corinthians  towards  himself  personally,  we 
seem  to  have  the  full  exposition  of  that  conflict  which  he  had 
represented  to  us  in  general  terms,  and  of  which  he  had  given  us 
the  results  rather  than  the  particulars. 

The  Apostle,  we  have  seen,  had  been  charged  with  assuming 
power  to  himself  in  his  letters  which  he  could  not  sustain  by  his 
personal  appearance  ;  for  when  he  measured  himself  against  the 
other  teachers  he  was  found  inferior  to  them.  This  charge  seems 
to  have  proceeded  from  teachers  who  trafficked  with  the  honor- 
able name  of  Apollos,  and  endeavored  to  draw  followers  after 
them  by  imitating  his  method.  He  declines  all  comparison  with 
these  men.  Neither  he  nor  they  are  the  standard  by  which  an 
Apostle's  work  is  to  be  tried.  It  is  God's  calling.  He  has  gone 
where  he  was  sent.  If  these  people  have  another  Gospel  to 
preach,  or  another  Spirit  to  impart,  be  it  so.  Otherwise  there  is 
no  excuse  for  their  undervaluing  of  him.  Whether  he  is  insignifi- 
cant or  not  in  speech,  he  has  told  them  what  they  wanted  to 
know  ;  he  has  at  least  preached  to  them  freely  ;  others  have  sup- 
ported him,  not  they.  If  he  has  used  authority  heretofore  not 
for  their  injury,  but  for  their  benefit,  he  will  use  it  still.  He  will 
not  let  them  be  the  victims  of  deceivers,  though  they  may  wish  to 
be  so.  He  has  bound  them  to  Christ;  he  will  not  give  them  up 
to  those  who  pretend  to  be  ministers  of  light  while  they  are  doing 
the  works  of  the  Spirit  of  evil. 

Do  they  want  tests  of  apostleship  that  are  visible  and  palpable  ? 
What  would  they  have  ?  Do  they  want  circumcised  men,  chil- 
dren of  Abraham  ?  He  is  that.  Do  they  want  men  who  have 
suffered  ?     He  has  suffered  as  much  as  any.     All  these  are  mere 


344  LECTURE    II. 

vain  things.  He  is  unwilling  to  speak  of  them.  It  is  folly  to 
speak  of  them.  But  if  they  call  upon  him  for  such  tokens,  there 
they  are. 

Or  perhaps  they  want  men  who  have  had  mysterious  revela- 
tions. He  is  not  afraid  to  speak  of  such.  For  they  do  not 
glorify  him  as*  an  individual.  It  is  only  as  a  man  in  Christ  that 
they  have  been  granted  to  him.  And  bitter  humiliations  have 
followed  them.  He  has  been  taught  not  to  exult  in  that  which 
did  not  belong  to  himself.  Therefore  the  infirmities,  contempts, 
necessities,  which  were  the  signs  of  his  fellowship  with  human- 
ity, are  as  precious  marks  of  Christ's  mercy  as  these  revela- 
tions. 

He  has  laid  himself  bare  before  them,  has  become  a  fool  for 
their  sakes,  and  now  he  will  come  to  them  again  the  third  time 
in  the  same  spirit  as  before,  not  to  exact  over  them,  not  to  plun- 
der them,  not  to  apologize  to  them,  but  to  build  up  their  Church, 
and  for  that  end,  if  need  be,  to  censure  without  sparing  those 
who  are  corrupting  and  dividing  it.  They  ask  for  proofs  that 
Christ  is  speaking  in  him  ;  they  shall  have  them.  He  will  come 
to  them  in  his  own  weakness,  but  he  will  come  to  them  in  the 
might  of  Christ.  He  will  speak  to  them  of  their  own  earthly 
weakness  and  of  their  own  divine  might.  "  Try  yourselves,"  he 
exclaims,  "  whether  you  are  in  the  faith.  Bring  yourselves  to 
the  proof.  Do  ye  not  know  your  own  selves  that  Jesus  Christ  is 
in  you,  unless  indeed  you  are  reprobate.''  "  Our  translators  have 
used  this  word  here  with  excellent  effect.  "  Prove  yourselves  " 
answers  to  "reprobate,"  as  doxtixd^trs  answers  to  ado-AtjKU.  And 
thus  we  arrive  at  the  true  meaning  of  reprobate,  that  which  has 
been  tried  and  found  worthless,  not  that  which  has  been  cast 
aside  without  trial.  Still  the  Latin  \vord  does  not  express  the 
whole  meaning  of  the  Greek  word.  The  ddoxcfio^  is  one  who 
has  lost  the  power  of  testing  and  proving  himself.  This  is  the 
sign  that  he  has  been  proved  worthless.  If  they  do  not  know 
themselves,  if  they  do  not  know  that  Christ  is  in  them,  they  de- 
serve this  name,  because  they  have  lost  the  capacity  of  appre- 
hending the   truth.     Paul  hopes   to   show  them  that  in  this  se?ise 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    GALATIANS.  345 

he  is  not  reprobate ;  though  as  far  as  that  word  implies  the  loss 
of  all  reputation  with  them,  he  is  willing  to  deserve  it,  so  long  as 
he  may  do  them  good.  He  has  no  power  against  the  truth,  only 
as,  a  witness  for  the  truth.  He  is  glad  to  be  weak  if  they  may  be 
strong.  All  he  wishes  is  to  establish  them,  to  bind  them  to- 
gether. He  writes  to  them  at  a  distance  that  he  may  not  use 
the  power  which  he  possesses  for  edification  and  not  destruction, 
when  he  is  among  them.  He  bids  them  rejoice,  be  strong,  be  of 
one  mind,  be  at  peace,  and  he  assured  them  that  the  God  of 
love  and  peace  will  be  with  them. 


EPISTLE  TO  THE  GALATIANS. 


I  TOOK  a  sentence  of  this  Epistle  as  the  starting-point  of  my 
remarks  upon  St.  Paul  ;  it  seemed  so  remarkably  to  declare  the 
object  of  his  life  as  well  as  of  his  writings.  Of  course  I  must 
look  upon  that  sentence  as  denoting  the  object  of  the  letter  in 
which  it  occurs.  But  I  do  not  wish  to  force  that  observation 
upon  the  reader.  I  hope  it  will  impress  itself  upon  him  without 
any  effort,  when  he  considers  the  relation  in  which  the  Apostle 
was  standing  to  his  Galatian  converts. 

There  is  little  difference  of  opinion  about  the  objects  of  the 
teachers  who  had  sought  to  turn  this  Church  from  St.  Paul's 
doctrines,  or  about  the  kind  of  influence  which  they  exerted. 
That  they  were  Judaizing  Christians  ;  that  they  endeavored  to 
set  up  the  Apostles  of  the  Circumcision  against  the  Apostles  of 
the  Gentiles — representing  him  to  be  not  an  Apostle  at  all,  but 
one  who  had  derived  his  wisdom  from  the  original  twelve,  and 
had  perverted  what  he  had  learnt ;  that  they  maintained  the 
privileges  of  those  who  were  circumcised  to  be  immeasurably 
greater  than  the  privileges  of  those  who  were  merely  baptized — 
even  if  the  latter  could  be  counted  in  a  safe  condition ;  that  the 


34^  LECTURE    II. 

Galatians  who  had  received  St.  Paul  with  passionate  fervor, 
listened  to  these  insinuations  against  him,  and  began  to  suspect 
that  he  had  deceived  them  about  their  own  position  ;  this  is  gen- 
erally admitted,  and  is  obvious  to  any  reader  of  the  letter. 

In  the  opening  assertion  that  he  was  an  Apostle  not  of  men, 
or  by  man,  he  joins  issue  with  the  teachers  who  had  spoken  of 
those  whom  Christ  had  called  while  on  earth,  as  his  masters  and 
as  possessing  a  title  to  obedience  which  he  could  never  claim. 
Much  more  was  involved  in  this  objection  than  a  mere  personal 
slander.  The  heresy  that  Christ  was  a  great  and  divine  Prophet 
during  the  thirty-three  years  that  he  stayed  on  earth,  but  those 
years  were  not  the  manifestation  of  One  who  is  the  same  yester- 
day, to-day,  and  for  ever,  was  involved  in  it.  Christ  had  ex- 
hausted his  power  of  designating  Apostles ;  He  was  not  really 
ruling  His  Church  after  He  ascended.  St.  Paul's  calling  was 
the  practical  answer  to  this  denial,  in  which  the  whole  Gospel 
was  involved ;  therefore  he  insists  upon  it ;  heedless,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  Corinthians,  whether  he  was  called  arrogant  and  self- 
exalting  or  not. 

The  first  two  chapters  are  mainly  occupied  in  explaining  his 
relation  to  the  Apostles  of  the  circumcision.  But  he  gives  the 
Galatians  at  once  to  understand  that  he  enters  upon  this  subject 
because  the  very  existence  of  their  faith  was  in  hazard.  These 
new  doctors  were  not  hurting  his  reputation,  or  substituting  an- 
other 77iode  of  teaching  for  his.  They  were  utterly  undermining 
the  New  Testament  dispensation  ;  they  were  preaching  another 
Gospel — which  was  not  another,  which  was  no  Gospel.  He 
keeps  no  terms  with  them  ;  he  denounces  and  anathematizes 
them  as  robbers  of  the  Gentiles  and  of  mankind.  They  were 
practising  the  easiest  and  oldest  of  tricks  with  the  old  success,  per- 
suading their  hearers  that  bondage  was  a  safer  state  than  free- 
dom. There  was  no  way  to  deal  with  such  men  but  to  tell  them 
that  whatever  they  might  pretend,  however  religious  they  might 
be,  they  were  denying  Christ  who  came  to  set  men  free. 

He  reminds  them  of  his  own  vehement  addiction  to  Jewish 
traditions.     He  had  known  what  these  were,  better  than  any  of 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    GALATIANS.  34/ 

those  who  were  now  exaUing  them.  Only  because  it  pleased 
God  to  reveal  His  Son  in  him  did  he  escape  from  them,  or  find 
that  he  had  a  message  which  he  must  deliver  to  all  men.  He 
had  not  to  learn  what  it  was  from  Peter  or  John  or  any  one  else. 
After  three  years  indeed  in  Arabia,  he  came  up  to  Jerusalem 
and  stayed  fifteen  days  with  Peter,  seeing  also  James  the  brothei 
of  the  Lord.  But  he  had  no  further  communication  with  the 
churches  of  Judsea  for  fourteen  years.  Then,  when  he  had  been 
engaged  in  his  mission  to  the  Gentiles  with  Barnabas,  they  went 
up  to  Jerusalem  ;  they  went  by  revelation,  and  they  desired  an 
additional  witness  that  they  were  not  running  in  vain  or  labor- 
ing in  vain.  But  they  submitted  to  no  dictation.  They  did  not 
allow  Titus,  who  was  a  Greek,  to  be  circumcised,  however  much 
some,  perhaps  even  the  Apostles,  might  have  desired  it  in  defer- 
ence to  the  prejudices  of  false  brethren  who  wished  to  rob  them 
of  their  liberty.  To  such  he  would  yield  place,  no  not  for  an 
hour.  And  ultimately,  he  says,  those  who  seemed  to  be  the  pil- 
lars of  the  Church  imposed  no  new  restraints  upon  them,  but 
gave  them  the  right  hand  of  fellowship,  treating  their  work  as  a 
distinct  one  from  their  own,  though  urging  them  (not  unwilling) 
to  remember  their  poor  countrymen. 

So  far  he  had  proved  that  the  Apostles  of  Jerusalem  were  not 
his  lawgivers  or  judges.  At  Antioch  he  went  further.  He  re- 
buked Peter  to  the  face,  because  at  first  he  had  eaten  freely  with 
Gentiles  ;  afterward  when  certain  came  down  from  James  he 
had  stood  aloof  from  them,  setting  an  example  to  the  other  Jews, 
and  even  drawing  Barnabas  after  him.  This  conduct  Paul  re- 
buked as  contrary  to  the  truth  of  the  Gospel.  He  said  to  Peter 
before  them  all,  "  If  thou,  being  a  Jew,  livest  as  a  Gentile,  by 
what  right  dost  thou  force  the  Gentile  to  Judaize  ? "  According 
to  Lachmann's  arrangement  of  the  sentences,  this  is  all  that  he 
said  at  that  time  ;  what  follows  belongs  to  the  Epistle. 

I  cannot  but  think  the  old  division  is  the  right  one.  The 
words  quoted  could  not  have  been  intelligible  to  Peter  and  the 
Jews  without  those  which  succeed  them.  It  might  easily  be  said, 
"  No  doubt  you  who  call  yourself   an  Apostle   of  the   Gentiles 


34^  LECTURE    II. 

have  a  great  interest  in  maintaining  their  equab'ty  with  the  Jews; 
Peter,  as  an  Apostle  of  the  Circumcision,  is  equally  boiHid  to  as- 
sert the  difference  between  them."  I  conceive  that  Paul  desired 
to  show  Peter  that  he,  though  an  Apostle  of  the  circumcision, 
was  as  much  bound  to  maintain  this  principle,  was  as  inconsist 
ent  in  not  maintaining  it,  as  he  himself  would  have  been.  There 
were  points,  they  had  agreed,  in  which  it  behoved  them  to  take 
one  course  and  him  another.  He  desires  to  make  it  clear  that 
this  was  not  one  of  those  cases ;  that  Peter  could  not  maintain 
the  truth  which  they  held  in  common,  if,  in  deference  to  the  pre- 
judices of  any  men  whatsoever,  he  disclaimed  complete  brotherly 
fellowship  with  the  Gentiles. 

Here  is  his  argument.  "We  Jews  by  nature^  and  not  sinners 
out  of  the  Gentiles,  knowing  that  a  man  is  not  justified  by  the 
works  of  the  law,  but  through  faith  of  Jesus  Christ,  we  too  have 
believed  on  Christ  Jesus,  that  we  may  be  justified  by  the  faith 
of  Christ,  and  not  by  the  works  of  the  law ;  because  by  the  works 
of  the  law  shall  no  flesh  be  justified."  As  if  he  had  said,  "  You 
are  a  Jew,  are  you  not?  You  have  not  the  disadvantage  of  these 
Gentiles  ;  you  are  not  a  sinner  because  you  belong  to  them.  And 
yet  you  have  believed  in  Christ,  you  have  felt  that  you  were  a 
just  and  righteous  man  only  in  virtue  of  your  belief  in  Him,  that 
you  were  not  a  righteous  or  justified  man  in  virtue  of  any  thing 
that  you  did  as  a  Jew,  of  any  thing  that  distinguished  you  from 
the  Gentiles."  "  But  if,"  he  goes  on,  "  we,  seeking  to  be  justi- 
fied in  Christ,  have  been  found  also  ourselves  sinners," — if  by 
seeking  this  righteousness  we  have  confessed  that  we  are  sin- 
ners as  much  as  those  who  were  not  in  our  covenant,  who  had 
not  our  law, — do  we  thereby  make  Christ  the  servant  of  sin  ?  " 
For  this,  no  doubt,  was  the  kind  of  reasoning  which  the  Judaiz- 
ing  Christians  used.  They  said,  "  In  lowering  ourselves  to  the 
level  of  the  Gentiles,  we  are  lowering  our  Master  ;  we  are  acting 
as  if  He  merely  came  as  a  minister  of  Gentile  sinners,  not  to  de- 
liver holy  Israel."  "  But  is  it  so  ?  "  St.  Paul  asks.  "No  verily. 
I  constitute  myself  a  transgressor  by  seeking  to  build  up  again 
those  things  which  I  had   thrown  down.     No  doubt  I,  Jew  as  I 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    GALATIANS.  349 

am,  am  a  sinner  in  myself.  The  Jewish  law  tells  me  I  am  ;  nay 
tells  me  that  I  am  dead.  I  am  dead  in  myself  that  I  might  live 
to  God.  I  am  crucified  with  Christ.  I  live,  not  I,  but  Christ 
lives  in  me  ;  and  that  which  I  now  live  in  the  flesh  I  live  by  the 
faith  of  God  and  of  Christ  who  has  loved  me,  aAd  has  given  Him- 
self for  me.  I  will  not  make  void  the  g^race  of  God.  If  throug^h 
the  law  is  righteousness,  then  hath  Christ  died  in  vain." 

It  is  a  great  cause  of  exultation  to  Bauer  and  his  school,  that 
St.  Paul  should  have  set  himself  thus  passionately  in  opposition 
to  the  Jerusalem  doctors,  and  should  have  shown  the  chief  of 
them  how  near  he  was  to  that  doctrine  which  afterwards  was 
called  Ebionitic.  But  if  I  wanted  to  curb  the  steed  and  check 
the  pride  of  these  neologians,  this  is  the  very  passage  on  which 
I  should  most  dwell.  Does  St.  Paul  set  up  his  theory  of  the 
Gospel  against  that  of  the  other  Apostles,  his  doctrine  of  Justi- 
fication against  their  doctrine  of  Works,  his  belief  in  Christ 
against  their  belief  in  the  Law?  Does  not  the  w^hole  force  of 
his  argument  turn  upon  this  ;  that  he  is  convicting  Peter  of  an 
act  of  temporary  treason  against  his  own  faith,  his  own  convic- 
tions, his  own  habitual  professions .''  Would  not  the  whole  of 
this  famous  speech  be  a  silly  waste  of  words  if  it  did  not  show 
what  the  faith  of  a  Jew,  of  a  circumcised  man,  of  an  Apostle  of 
the  Circumcision,  must  be,  in  order  that  he  might  justify  his 
trust  in  Christ  to  his  own  heart  and  to  his  countrymen,  supposing 
there  were  not  a  Gentile  in  the  world .?  If  Peter  had  one  Gospel 
and  Paul  another,  the  former  was  not  to  be  blamed  for  the  course 
he  took  ;  there  was  nothing  insincere  or  wrong  in  it.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  peculiar  position  of  himself  and  of  James,  the 
strong  obligation  which  was  laid  upon  them  of  showing  how 
great  the  privileges  of  the  Jew  were,  exposed  them  to  a  particular 
kind  of  temptation,  into  which  temptation  Peter  on  this  occasion 
fell, — and  in  the  city  where  it  was  likely  to  be  most  mischievous, 
— doing  thereby  as  much  harm  to  his  own  countrymen  as  to  the 
Gentiles,  how  desirable  was  it  that  such  a  testimony  as  this 
should  be  bore  to  the  truth  of  the  Gospel  for  which  they  were 
both  equally  pledged  to  live  and  die. 


350  LECTURE    II. 

The  Apostle,  as  usual,  has  done  a  great  deal  of  work  in  a  very 
short  space.  Whilst  appearing  only  to  defend  his  own  title 
against  those  who  were  disparaging  it,  he  has  really  entered  into 
the  very  heart  of  the  subject ;  he  has  torn  to  pieces  the  new 
Gospel  of  these  Judaizers,  as  well  as  taken  from  them  the  au- 
thority upon  which  they  pretended  to  rest  it.  And  now  then  he 
can  turn  to  their  victims.  Not,  however,  that  there  is  any  real 
chasm  between  the  address  he  made  to  Peter  at  Antioch  and 
that  which  he  makes  here  to  the  foolish  Galatians.  There  he 
had  said  that  he  was  dead  with  Christ,  that  he  lived  by  Him  ; 
here  he  asks  who  had  enchanted  them  before  whose  eyes  Christ 
Jesus  had  been  set  forth  crucified.  I  do  not  ask  whether  the 
words  "  in  you  "  ought  to  stand  or  to  be  thrown  out.  I  rest  nothing 
upon  them.  I  only  ask  that  we  should  take  the  previous  passage 
together  with  the  sixth  and  seventh  chapters  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Romans,  to  explain  why  he  speaks  in  this  place  of  Christ 
being  crucified.  If  he  had  not  preached  to  the  Galatians  that 
they  were  crucified  with  Christ,  that  Christ  lived  in  them,  there 
would  seem  no  reason  for  such  language,  nor  would  it  stand  in 
any  evident  connection  with  what  follows.  He  asks  them  whether 
they  received  the  Spirit  by  the  works  of  the  law,  or  by  the  hear- 
ing of  faith.  He  surely  intimates  that  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  was 
the  great  sign  that  the  Christ  had  come,  and  that  the  New  Testa- 
ment covenant  had  displaced  the  Old.  Had  this  then,  the 
highest  and  most  perfect  gift  of  all,  been  bestowed  because  they 
had  done  some  great  acts  to  deserve  it,  or  because  they  trusted 
God  as  a  Father  to  give  good  gifts  to  His  children  ?  He  stops 
for  a  moment  to  ask  whether  they  really  think  that  there  can  be 
any  greater  blessing  than  this,  whether  outward  fleshly  gifts  can 
make  them  more  complete  than  this  spiritual  one.  And  then  he 
proceeds  to  argue  with  the  Judaizers  entirely  upon  their  own 
ground.  It  is  the  covenant  with  Abraham  they  prize  so  highly. 
What  is  that  covenant  ?  Its  ground  is  belief  in  God,  its  person- 
al fruit  is  righteousness,  its  full  expression  is,  "  In  thee  shall  all 
the  nations  be  blessed."  If  you  want  to  be  blessed  with  Abra 
ham,  you  must  believe  in  God  as  he  did.     But  you  are  not  con- 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    GALATIANS.  35 1 

tent  with  that ;  you  want  to  be  under  the  law.  That  is,  you  want 
not  to  be  under  a  blessing,  but  under  a  curse.  The  law  is  rati- 
fied by  a  curse.  Those  who  had  the  law  did  not  want  to  be 
under  it ;  for  the  Prophet  said,  "  the  just  man  shall  live  by  faith." 
The  law  is  not  of  faith.  Its  formulary  is,  "  he  that  doeth  these 
things  shall  live  by  them."  Christ  enduring  the  accursed  cross, 
redeemed  us  from  that  death  which  is  the  law's  curse,  the 
death  which  is  upon  all  men  alike  ;  that  so  in  Him  the  blessing 
of  Abraham  might  come  upon  the  Gentiles  as  well  as  the  Jews, 
that  "  we  might  receive  the  promise  of  the  Spirit  through  faith." 
The  Epistle  to  the  Romans  has  prepared  us  for  this  kind  of 
argument ;  but  it  is  put  here  more  sharply  and  epigrammatically, 
more  suitably  to  the  character  of  the  Galatian  people.  The  con- 
trast between  the  blessing  of  the  covenant  and  the  curse  of  the 
law  would  startle  them  by  its  evident  truth,  however  little  they 
might  have  thought  of  it  before.  Of  the  same  character  are  the 
remarks  which  follow.  A  human  covenant  would  not  be  set 
aside  or  disannulled  by  him  who  made  it.  The  promises  to 
Abraham  and  to  his  seed  were  made  by  God  Himself.  Would 
God's  law  set  those  aside  ?  And  mark  the  words  of  the  promise. 
It  is  to  Abraham  and  his  seed,  not  to  his  seeds.  It  may  be 
thought  that  here  St.  Paul  is  playing  with  words,  accommodating 
himself  to  the  temper  either  of  the  Rabbinical  teachers,  or  of  the 
lively  superficial  people  who  had  been  misled  by  them.  I  do 
not  deny  that  he  was  acquainted  with  the  habits  of  both,  and  that 
he  availed  himself  of  his  knowledge.  But  if  he  does,  it  is  not 
for  the  purpose  of  confirming  the  disease,  but  of  curing  it.  The 
difference  which  he  points  out  between  seeds  and  seed  is  a 
radical  one.  It  catches  the  ear.  But  the  further  you  look  into 
it  the  more  important  it  becomes.  As  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans  he  had  so  successfully  turned  the  prejudice  of  the 
Israelite  against  the  Ishmaelite  and  the  Edomite  to  their  con- 
futation, showing  that  the  calling  of  Isaac  and  Jacob  were  signs 
that  the  covenant  was  not  a  fleshly  one,  as  they  were  making  it 
out  to  be  when  they  were  seeking  to  exclude  the  Gentiles ;  so 
here  he  dwells  upon  the  fact  that  it  was  not  the  different  seeds  of 


352  LECTURE    II. 

Abraham  but  the  one  seed  to  whom  the  promise  was  made,  as  a 
witness  that  there  was  one  person  contemplated  in  the  scheme  of 
God,  as  He  in  whom  all  the  families  of  the  earth  were  to  have  a 
blessing.  If,  then, — his  argument  is,^the  Jew  claims  a  blessing 
as  a  descendant  of  Abraham,  he  must  first  of  all  claim  it  simply 
as  a  blessing;  secondly,  he  must  claim  it  through  a  person,  the 
Mediator  of  it;  thirdly,  he  must  claim  it  as  one  of  indefinite  and 
universal  extent. 

But  what,  then,  is  the  meaning  of  the  Law  if  it  stands  out  thus 
in  opposition  to  the  Covenant  and  the  Promise  ?  He  answers, 
"  It  was  added,  because  of  transgressions."  It  presumes  wrong- 
doing, the  separation  of  those  to  whom  it  is  sent  from  Him  who 
has  chosen  them  and  revealed  Himself  to  them.  The  law  he 
describes  as  serving  this  purpose  till  the  seed  should  come  to 
whom  the  promise  was  made.  It  was  ordained,  he  says,  through 
angels,  but  it  was  in  the  hand  of  a  Mediator.  He  adds,  "  Now 
a  Mediator  is  not  a  mediator  of  one,  but  God  is  one.  Is  the  law 
then  against  the  promises  of  God  ?  No,  verily.  If  a  law  had 
been  given  that  could  impart  life,  truly  righteousness  would  have 
been  by  law.  But  the  Scripture  has  concluded  all  things  under 
sin,  that  the  promise  by  faith  of  Jesus  Christ  might  be  given  to 
those  who  believe."  This  doctrine  of  Law  as  administered  by 
angels,  has  a  very  important  bearing  upon  the  New  Testament 
revelation.  It  forms  a  link  between  this  Epistle  and  that  to  the 
Hebrews.  There  the  new  dispensation  is  spoken  of  as  the  dis- 
pensation  of  a  Son,  in  contrast  with  the  old  as  a  dispensation  by 
Angels.  At  the  same  time  it  is  shown  that  a  Son  was  pointed 
at  and  implied  in  every  part  of  Jewish  history  and  prophecy. 
Here  the  subject  is  contemplated  less  generally,  and  from  a 
somewhat  different  point  of  view.  The  promises  of  God  are 
said  all  to  point  to  a  certain  seed ;  the  law  is  said  to  be  given 
through  angels  or  messengers,  yet  with  continual  reference  to  a 
Mediator  in  whom  the  law  is  accomplished,  in  whom  God  and 
man  are  united.  The  law  expresses  the  separation  between 
them.  Herein  lies  its  curse.  The  covenant  expresses  the  union 
between  man  and  God.     Herein  consists  its  blessing.     But  the 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    GALATIANS.  353 

blessing  can  only  be  realized,  the  curse  can  only  be  taken  away 
when  He  who  is  at  once  the  Seed  and  the  Mediator  is  mani- 
fested. The  law  implies  that  there  are  two  parties  who  must  be 
reconciled.  But  though  there  are  these  two  parties,  since  God  is 
one,  since  He  is  always  the  same,  how  can  His  law  and  His 
promises  be  contrary  to  each  other  ?  They  cannot  be  contrary. 
Their  object  as  well  as  their  source  must  be  the  same.  Law 
proclaims  righteousness.  Had  it  the  power  it  would  make  men 
righteous.  But  it  has  not  the  power  ;  it  never  can  give  life. 
The  Scripture,  or  perhaps  more  properly  the  written  letter  used 
as  an  equivalent  for  the  law,  hath  shut  up  all  things  under  sin, 
that  the  promise  of  righteousness  and  life  might  be  given  to  those 
who  have  faith  in  Christ.  Language  very  similar  to  this  I  have 
considered  at  large  while  commenting  upon  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans.  To  that  Epistle  we  must  turn  for  the  full  explanation 
of  the  law  of  sin  and  of  righteousness,  of  the  truth  that  the  flesh 
is  convicted  of  having  no  good  thing  in  itself,  that  righteousness 
comes  from  Christ  upon  all  who  believe.  What  we  have  to  take 
notice  of  here  is  the  particular  phraseology  "  shut  up,"  kept  in 
garrison  under  law,  with  a  view  to  the  faith  which  was  after- 
wards to  be  revealed.  What  the  Judaizing  teachers  had  said  to 
the  Galatians  was,  that  the  old  covenant  and  law  put  men  into  a 
more  perfect  state  than  the  new  baptism.  That  was  good  as  far 
as  it  went ;  it  was  a  preliminary.  But  if  they  would  stand  on  a 
high  ground  they  must  add  the  Judaical  rite.  His  great  object 
therefore  is  to  reverse  this  order,  to  show  that  the  old  must  have 
been  the  preliminary,  that  law  and  covenant  both  implied  some- 
thing as  existing  which  had  not  yet  been  declared.  This  state, 
which  the  silly  Galatians  were  imagining  as  one  of  special  eleva- 
tion, was,  in  fact,  in  its  very  nature  elementary.  The  law  was 
the  pedagogue  leading  men  to  Christ,  that  they  might  be  made 
righteous  by  faith  in  Him.  But  now  that  faith  had  come,  now 
that  the  object  of  faith  had  been  revealed,  they  were  not  subject 
to  this  schoolmaster.  "  For  ye  are  all  sons  of  God  through  the 
faith  in  Christ  Jesus.  For  as  many  of  you  as  have  been  baptized 
into  Christ  have  put  on  Christ.     There  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek, 

23 


354  LECTURE    II. 

there  is  neither  bond  nor  free,  there  is  neither  male  nor  female  ; 
you  are  all  one  in  Christ  Jesus.  And  if  you  are  Christ's  then 
you  are  Abraham's  seed,  heirs  according  to  promise."  This  is 
the  conclusion  to  which  he  has  been  bringing  us  from  the  first. 
Sonship  to  God  is  the  highest  state  of  all.  Every  thing  in  the 
old  dispensation  has  been  hinting  at  that,  looking  forward  to  the 
time  when  Jews — when  men — should  be  able  to  claim  it.  The 
time  is  come.  You  Gentiles  have  been  baptized  into  Christ,  you 
have  put  on  Christ,  you  have  claimed  in  Him  the  state  of  Son- 
ship.  What  more  do  you  want  ?  Is  it  to  be  heirs  of  Abraham's 
blessing  ?     You  are  that  already.     This  is  the  inheritance. 

Then  comes  that  remarkable  passage,  so  all  important  for  the 
understanding  of  St.  Paul,  in  which  he  affirms  that  men  did  not 
begin  to  be  sons  of  God  when  they  were  declared  sons  of  God, 
that  their  previous  discipline  and  education  implied  that  this  was 
their  character,  just  as  the  Roman  act  of  emancipation  did  not 
cause  those  to  be  children  who  had  not  been  so  already,  but  rec- 
ognized and  affirmed  them  to  be  children,  and  put  them  in  pos- 
session of  the  rights  belonging  to  that  relation.  What  is  spe- 
cially to  be  observed  is,  that  the  Apostle  draws  no  distinction 
in  this  respect  between  Jews  and  Gentiles.  We  might  have  con- 
cluded that  the  Jews,  the  chosen  people  of  Qod,  were  children 
under  education,  treated  as  servants  up  to  the  hour  of  emancipa- 
tion. But  here,  as  everywhere,  St.  Paul  is  a  leveller.  We,  he 
says,  while  we  were  infants  were  in  servitude  under  the  elements 
of  the  world ;  you  that  did  not  know  God  were  in  servitude  to 
those  that  by  nature  are  not  Gods.  He  does  not  of  course  con- 
found the  Jew  with  the  Gentile  ;  he  does  not  undervalue  the  de- 
liverance from  idolatry  ;  but  he  describes  one  as  well  as  the 
other  as  being  children  under  servitude,  one  as  well  as  the  other 
as  being  subjected  to  elements  of  the  world,  in  order  that  they 
might  be  trained  for  that  fulness  of  the  time  when  Christ,  made 
of  a  woman,  made  under  the  law,  should  redeem  those  who  were 
under  the  law,  that  they  might  receive  the  adoption  of  sons,  and 
when,  because  they  were  sons,  He  should  send  forth  the  Spirit 
of  His  Son  into  their  hearts,  crying  Abba,  Father. 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    GALATIANS.  355 

He  considers  then  their  adherence  to  these  Judaizing  teachers 
as  nothing  less  than  a  relapse  into  idolatry.  He  had  delivered 
them  from  it  only  by  preaching  that  the  unseen  God  had  sent 
forth  His  Son  to  claim  them  from  the  service  of  outward  visible 
things,  and  adopt  them  into  His  family.  If  they  were  not 
adopted  into  His  family,  if  they  were  to  become  servants  of  vis- 
ible things,  in  order  that  they  might  attain  a  more  perfect  state, 
it  did  not  signify  what  they  called  themselves  ;  they  were  sep- 
arating themselves  from  the  God  of  Abraham  and  doing  homage 
to  those  against  whom  law  and  prophets  had  borne  witness. 
This  was  a  startling  charge  for  those  to  hear  who  fancied  them- 
selves ultra-Jews,  and  who  professed  to  raise  the  Gentiles  to  their 
level.  But  it  is  in  perfect  consistency  with  all  St.  Paul's  teach- 
ing. Jews,  he  saw,  must  become  idolaters,  the  worst  kind  of 
idolaters,  unless  they  preached  a  Gospel  of  deliverance  to  idola- 
ters which  was  equally  a  Gospel  for  themselves. 

It  is  this  conviction  which  comes  out  so  strongly  in  the  verses 
from  the  nth  to  21st  of  the  4th  chapter.  He  is  afraid  for  the 
Galatians  lest  he  should  have  labored  among  them  in  vain.  It 
is  not  that  they  have  done  him  any  wrong.  All  he  wants  is  that 
they  should  share  the  blessing  which  belongs  to  them  as  much 
as  to  him.  They  knew  very  well  that  he  came  to  them  in  weak- 
ness. There  was  something  in  his  circumstances,  apparently,  on 
his  first  visit  which  was  especially  humiliating.  Yet  it  did  not 
interfere  with  their  receiving  him  as  an  angel  of  God,  as  if  Christ 
Himself  had  come  among  them.  At  that  time  they  would  have 
dug  out  their  eyes  to  give  to  him.  They  were  wonderfully  zeal- 
ous ;  and  zeal  is  an  excellent  thing  if  it  is  in  a  good  cause,  and 
if  it  does  not  spend  itself  in  mere  love  to  those  who  are  present. 
But  there  is  a  zeal  which  is  not  at  all  excellent.  There  are  those 
who  show  a  great  deal  of  zeal  in  robbing  their  disciples  of  that 
which  is  most  precious,  in  order  that  they  may  depend  upon  the7n 
and  admire  them.  It  is  not  that  kind  of  affection  which  St.  Paul 
would  cultivate  towards  his  disciples,  or  would  win  from  them. 
Yet  he  does  feel  for  them  a  mother's  love  and  a  mother's  pangs. 
He  travails  again  in  birth  for  them  until  Christ  be  formed  in 


356  LECTURE    II. 

them.  For  this  is  what  he  desires  for  them,  not  something  for- 
eign and  external  to  themselves.  While  they  are  seeking  mere 
externals  he  must  be  in  doubt  of  them,  nay,  he  must  come  to 
them  again  with  a  changed  and  sterner  voice. 

After  this  utterance  of  personal  feeling  which  belongs  just  as 
much  to  the  object  and  essence  of  the  Epistle,  as  passages  of  a 
similar  kind  did  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  he  returns 
again  to  his  old  line  of  argument.  He  still  uses  the  argumentum 
ad  hommem,  he  still  takes  up  the  tone  of  thought  which  was  fa- 
miliar to  the  Jews,  divesting  it  of  its  triviality,  bringing  out  the 
truth  which  was  latent  in  it.  You  wish  to  be  under  law,- that  is 
under  the  Old  Testament  economy.  Let  us  hear  then  what  we 
are  told  in  the  books  which  expound  that  economy  to  us.  Con- 
sider the  story  of  Hagar  and  Sarah,  of  Isaac  and  Ishmael. 
Your  teachers  are  in  the  habit  of  dwelling  upon  it  and  deducing 
all  sorts  of  fanciful  meanings  from  it.  I  admit  that  it  has  a 
meanino;.  What  is  it  ?  The  child  of  the  flesh  was  the  child  of 
Hagar  ;  the  child  of  the  promise  was  the  child  of  Sarah.  Sarah 
was  a  freewoman,  Hagar  was  a  bondslave.  I  have  called  you 
to  be  children  of  the  promise,  children  of  God's  covenant :  they 
want  you  to  be  children  of  bondage,  servants  of  the  law  that  was 
proclaimed  on  Sinai.  I  grant  you  they  would  connect  you  with 
Jerusalem  ;  but  it  is  not  with  God's  Jerusalem,  with  the  divine, 
free,  heavenly  city.  It  is  with  a  fleshly,  earthly,  slavish  city, 
which  is  in  bondage  with  all  her  children.  I  call  you  to  be  citi- 
zens of  that  city, — children  of  that  mother  of  whom  the  prophet 
speaks  as  the  true  Sarah  that  was  barren  and  did  not  bring  forth, 
and  yet  was  to  have  many  more  children  than  the  other.  I 
know  that  if  you  claim  this  liberty  and  this  citizenship,  you  will 
endure  persecution  and  suffering  from  those  who  are  content 
with  fleshly  bondage.  But  the  divine  word  has  gone  forth, 
"  Cast  out  the  bondwoman  and  her  children  ;  for  the  children 
of  the  bondwoman  shall  not  be  heirs  with  the  children  of  the 
free."  A  strangely  new  moral  of  the  story  it  must  have  seemed 
to  the  Rabbis,  one  that  had  never  occurred  to  them  amidst  all  the 
multitude  of  allegories  they  were  in  the  habit  of  spinning.     But 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    GALATIANS.  357 

it  carried  its  own  evidence  with  it.  It  was  no  mere  pretty  appli- 
cation of  a  story.  It  was  the  detection  in  one  particular  case  of 
a  divine  law  which  might  be  traced  through  every  fact  of  the 
divine  history. 

Freedom  is  held  out  to  man  as  the  effect  of  all  God's  dealings 
with  him.  Christ  had  fulfilled  the  law  in  working  out  freedom 
for  men.  In  His  freedom  they  were  to  stand  fast.  To  stoop  to 
bondage  was  to  renounce  Him.  To  be  circumcised  was  to  say 
that  He  had  not  redeemed  them.  It  was  to  lay  themselves 
under  the  obligation  of  doing  the  whole  law ;  it  was  to  fall  from 
grace.  "  For  we  in  spirit  by  faith  receive  the  hope  of  righteous- 
ness." This  is  our  reward,  this  is  our  expectation,  to  know 
God's  righteousness  and  to  be  partakers  of  it.  If  we  are  united 
to  Christ,  if  we  are  made  sons  of  God  in  Him,  then  we  have  this 
reward;  for  in  Him  neither  circumcision  availeth  any  thing,  nor 
uncircumcision,  but  faith  energizing  through  love.  That  is,  to 
speak  plainly,  there  would  be  no  faith  working  through  love, 
there  would  be  no  aspiring  after  righteousness  in  those  who  sup- 
posed that  circumcision  was  to  save  them  or  to  perfect  them  ; 
they  would  not  understand  what  they  were  saved  from,  thev 
would  have  no  dream  of  what  perfection  consists  in.  The  Apos- 
tle therefore  does  not  disguise  that  he  is  alarmed  for  them.  He 
trusts  that  the  leaven  was  not  gone  into  their  hearts  ;  but  a  little 
leaven  may  leaven  the  whole  lump.  Whoever  it  is  who  has 
troubled  them  with  this  new  Gospel  about  circumcision,  will  bear 
his  burden.  It  was  a  very  easy  doctrine  to  preach.  A  great 
deal  of  persecution  among  men  might  be  avoided  by  it ;  but  he 
trusted  that  God  would  cut  off  those  who  troubled  them. 

The  hint  which  he  has  given  about  the  moral  effects  of  liberty 
and  slavery,  is  followed  out  through  the  rest  of  the  Epistle. 
What  did  his  opponents  suppose  that  he  meant  by  liberty  ?  Did 
they  think  that  he  meant  the  liberty  of  the  flesh,  the  liberty  of 
each  man  to  please  himself  ?  No,  but  it  was  the  liberty  of  yield- 
ing to  God's  Spirit,  the  liberty  to  serve  one  another  in  love. 
"  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  was  the  great  law  of 
liberty :  the  right  to   bite   and  devour  one   another  was   a  very 


358  LECTURE    II. 

miserable  right  indeed.  There  were  two  powers  contending  for 
them.  The  flesh  was  kisting  against  the  Spirit,  the  Spirit  against 
the  flesh  ;  so  that  they  did  not  do  the  things  which  they  would, 
either  all  the  good  or  all  the  evil  which  they  intended.  But  if 
they  submitted  to  be  led  by  the  spirit,  they  would  not  fulfil  the 
lusts  of  the  flesh,  and  they  would  not  be  under  the  yoke  of  law. 
For  law  exists  to  condemn  the  acts  of  the  flesh,  and  the  fruits  of 
the  Spirit  are  those  against  which  there  is  no  law.  As  he  had 
already  declared,  the  privilege  of  those  who  belonged  to  Christ 
is,  that  they  are  crucified  with  him  ;  they  have  renounced  the 
flesh  and  the  lusts  which  are  their  own  ;  they  have  claimed  the 
righteousness  and  life  which  are  in  Him. 

I  have  noticed  elsewhere  the  memorable  coincidence  which 
there  is  between  this  passage  in  the  Epistle  which  is  supposed  to 
be  the  most  Pauline,  the  most  anti-Jacobite,  and  the  Epistle  of 
St.  James.  And  the  coincidence  is  expressly  in  the  assertion  of 
liberty.  The  regal  law  of  St.  James  is  the  law  of  liberty  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Galatians.  Upon  the  assertion  that  the  Son  of 
God  has  come  that  we  might  have  power  to  be  spiritual  crea- 
tures, and  to  carry  out  God's  will  in  the  spirit,  both  teachers  in- 
sist equally.  And  both  apply  it  to  the  confutation  of  Jewish 
vanity  and  pharisaism.  Only  the  work  of  St.  James  was  to  con- 
fute the  Pharisee,  by  showing  him  what  the  ceremonial  of  his 
law  meant,  how  it  might  be  learned  and  fulfilled  by  one  who 
regarded  the  true  service  of  God  as  consisting  in  visiting  the 
fatherless  and  widows  in  their  affliction  ;  whereas  the  work  of 
St.  Paul  was  to  show  what  foundation  had  been  laid  for  a  spirit- 
ual and  universal  economy  after  the  Jewish  ceremonial  and  polity 
should  have  crumbled.  In  pursuance  of  that  object,  the  last  part 
of  the  Epistle  is  occupied  in  pointing  out  what  sympathy  and 
fellowship  the  members  of  the  church  would  have  with  each 
other,  what  capacity  of  restoring  those  who  had  fallen,  what  dis- 
trust of  themselves,  what  readiness  to  bear  the  burdens  of  one 
another  and  to  endure  their  own,  what  a  communication  of  bless- 
ings there  would  be  between  the  teacher  and  the  taught,  what  an 
unfainting  zeal  in  doing  good,s  what  hope  of  a  harvest  of  eternal 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    GALATIANS. 


359 


life,  if  they  sowed  to  the  Spirit ;  and  what  poor  and  miserable 
results  if  they  sowed  to  the  flesh,  even  if  they  had  ever  so  much 
zeal  about  circumcision  and  law.  That  zeal,  when  it  took  the 
form  of  forcing  a  bondage  upon  the  Gentiles,  was  fleshly  in  the 
simplest  sense  ;  it  was  a  rebellion  against  the  cross  of  Christ,  in 
which  alone  the  Apostle  desired  to  glory,  by  which  the  world 
was  crucified  to  him  and  he  to  the  world.  In  Christ  Jesus  there 
was  a  new  creation  ;  circumcision  and  uncircumcision  were  at 
an  end.  To  all  v/ho  would  walk  according  to  that  rule  he  wished 
mercy  and  peace,  and  to  the  Israel  of  God. 


EPISTLE  TO  THE  EPHESIANS. 


The  relations  of  St.  Paul  with  the  Ephesians  cannot  be  as  ac- 
curately determined  from  the  Epistle  itself  as  those  with  the 
Corinthians  and  Galatians.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  no 
Church  respecting  which  we  have  so  much  information  from 
other  sources.  The  19th  and  20th  chapters  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  give  us  hints  which  are  invaluable.  We  know  from  the 
previous  chapter  that  Apollos  had  visited  Ephesus  while  he  was 
in  the  fervor  of  his  first  convictions,  before  Aquila  and  Priscilla 
had  instructed  him  resiDecting  the  Christ.  The  opening  of  the 
19th  chapter  explains  the  character  and  effect  of  his  preaching. 
St.  Paul  finds  certain  disciples.  He  at  once  asks  them  the 
question,  "  Ha\'e  ye  received  the  Holy  Spirit  since  ye  believed  ?" 
to  which  they  answer,  "  We  have  not  so  much  as  heard  if  there 
is  a  Holy  Spirit."  He  asks  them,  "  Into  what  were  ye  then  bap- 
tized ? "  They  reply,  "  To  John's  Baptism."  These  men  be- 
longed to  no  Apollos  school  such  as  we  hear  of  afterwards  in 
Corinth.  That  school  was  Christian  in  the  admitted  sense  of 
the  word,  however,  like  every  school,  it  might  divide  Christ.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  Alexandrian 
characteristics  of  Apollos  were  absorbed  in  his  reverence  for  the 
teaching  of  John  the  Baptist.  We  may  be  tolerably  sure  that  he 
would  speak  of  John  as  having  come  to  withdraw  his  countrymen 
from  sensible  and  visible  things,  and  to  fix  their  minds  on  the 
divine  and  Eternal  Teacher,  Light,  Word.  In  this  sense  he 
spoke  of  a  divine  Lord,  and  those  who  listened  to  him  might 
truly  be  called  "  disciples  "  by  St.  Luke.  His  acknowledgment 
of  John's  mission  raised  him  far  above  the  mere  Theosophers 
of  his  city.  It  brought  him  in  contact  with  the  people  ;  it  made 
him,  to  a  certain  extent,  a  leveller.  It  may  have  combined  with 
(360^ 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    EPHESIANS.  361 

his  previous  Philonic  education  to  break  down  his  Jewish  pre- 
judices, and  to  prepare  him  for  seeing  children  of  Abraham 
raised  out  of  stones.  That  which  he  and  his  followers 
wanted^  as  St.  Paul's  words  to  them  show,  was  a  belief  that  the 
King  of  whom  John  spoke  had  been  manifested,  and  that  he 
was  baptizing,  as  St.  John  said  He  would,  with  the  Holy  Spirit 
and  with  fire. 

This  is  the  first  great  help  in  ascertaining  the  condition  of  the 
Ephesian  Church.  Though  it  would  be  rash  to  say  that  these 
twelve  Johannine  disciples  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  Christian 
society  in  Ephesus,  we  may  suppose  that  St.  Luke  would  not  have 
alluded  to  them  in  this  place  when  he  is  recording  the  com- 
mencement of  St.  Paul's  two  years'  preaching,  if  the  facts  had  not 
some  close  connection  with  each  other.  The  next  of  which  he 
speaks  points  to  a  more  formal  desertion  of  the  synagogue  than 
we  read  of  elsewhere.  For  three  months  Paul  discoursed  in  it 
with  the  freedom  which  Jews  seem  seldom  to  have  refused 
to  Rabbis  who  assumed  the  Scriptures  as  the  data  from 
which  they  reasoned.  But  observing,  it  would  seem,  that 
his  disputations  were  doing  harm  rather  than  good,  that  the  con- 
science of  the  Jews  was  becoming  harder,  and  that  they  were 
misrepresenting  his  teaching  to  the  multitude,  he  separated  him- 
self, and  discoursed  daily  in  the  school  of  one  Tyrannus.  Here 
Jews  and  Gentiles  were  admitted  indiscriminately  ;  in  the  most 
important  city  of  Asia  Minor  a  Jew  was  heard  for  two  years, 
declaring  a  message  from  God  to  both  equally. 

Next  we  hear  of  unusual  powers  of  healing  exercised  by  the 
Apostle.  It  would  be  in  accordance  with  the  notions  commonly 
entertained  of  these  powers  to  assume  that  they  were  more  fre- 
quent and  remarkable  in  Ephesus,  because  it  was  a  greater 
resort  of  strangers  than  any  city  which  St.  Paul  had  yet  visited. 
I  do  not  undervalue  that  explanation ;  but  I  think  St.  Luke  him- 
self suggests  another,  which  demands  at  least  equal  attention, 
He  has  already  led  us  to  observe  that  the  Christians  in  Ephesus 
required  to  be  impressed  with  the  sense  of  spiritual  power. 
Their  moral  preparation  since  they  had  begun  from  the  preacher 


362  LECTURE    II. 

of  repentance  was  the  best  possible.  But  that  victory  over  the 
powers  of  evil,  which  was  indicated  by  the  miracles  of  our  Lord 
and  His  Apostles,  they  had  not  yet  entered  into.  Perhaps  they 
shrunk  instinctively  from  the  belief  in  powers  which  they 
saw  abused  to  the  most  shameful  and  demoralizing  purposes. 
For  it  is  evident  from  St.  Luke's  account  that  the  arts  of  sor- 
cery and  magic,  all  those  acts  which  betoken  the  belief  in 
the  presence  of  a  spirit,  but  not  of  a  holy  Spirit,  were  flourishing 
here  in  great  luxuriance.  Every  thing  in  the  history  of  the  Old 
or  New  Testament  would  suggest  the  thought,  that  the  exhibi- 
tions of  divine  power  took  a  more  startling  form  where  supersti- 
tions grounded  mainly  on  the  reverence  for  diabolical  power  were 
prevalent ;  that  they  were  the  proclamations  of  a  beneficent  and 
orderly  government  which  had  been  manifested  to  counteract 
and  overcome  one  that  was  irregular  and  malevolent.  In  this 
way  a  deadly  blow  was  given  to  idolatry,  which  relied  mainly  for 
its  defence  on  appeals  to  the  curiosity  and  fears  of  men.  And 
that  it  may  be  seen  that  the  Christian  testimonies  against  these 
enchantments  were  not  of  the  same  nature  with  them,  that  they 
did  not  depend  upon  the  use  of  charms  or  cabalistical  words,  the 
story  of  the  Jewish  youths  who  tried  to  imitate  Paul  and  practise 
his  abjuration,  is  related  in  connection  with  the  planting  of  the 
Church  in  Ephesus.  It  was  no  sham  battle  with  the  powers  of 
evil  that  Paul  was  waging.  He  had  not  a  new  scheme  of  acting 
upon  the  nerves  of  weak  women,  or  the  consciences  of  evil  men, 
but  the  power  of  making  the  one  reasonable  and  the  other  pure. 
Next,  it  is  in  Ephesus,  as  these  announcements  might  prepare 
us  to  expect,  that  idolatry  becomes  first  clearly  aware  what  a  new 
foe  it  has  to  encounter.  Nowhere  else  do  we  hear  of  any  tumult 
at  all  resembling  that  which  was  raised  by  Demetrius  and  his 
craftsmen.  The  historian  dwells  upon  it  at  unusual  length,  as  if 
to  make  us  aware  both  of  its  singularity  at  that  time,  and  of  its 
importance  as  a  type  of  events  which  would  occur  afterwards. 
There  was,  as  we  have  heard  already,  a  powerful  colony  of  Jews 
in  Ephesus,  who  had  of  course  stood  entirely  aloof  from  the 
worship   of   Diana,  yet  had  occasioned   no  alarm  to  those  who 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    EPHESIANS.  363 

were  interested  in  upholding  it.  Alexander  probably  appeared 
in  the  theatre  at  Ephesus  to  assert  the  innocence  of  his  country- 
men, and  to  vindicate  them  from  suspicion  of  the  least  sympathy 
with  the  new  sect.  St.  Paul,  as  the  town-clerk  testified  for  him, 
had  not  transgressed  the  respect  which  was  due  to  the  religion  of 
the  country,  had  spoken  no  disrespectful  words  of  the  goddess 
or  the  temple ;  as  far  as  association  with  heathens  went,  he  had 
of  course  been  far  less  exclusive  than  the  elder  Jews.  It  was 
precisely  in  this  freedom  from  exclusiveness  that  the  peril  to  the 
craft  lay.  If  a  society  of  Jews  and  Gentiles  recognizing  no 
divisions  and  barriers  was  possible,  idolatry  was  hastening  to  its 
end.  Demetrius  had  sagacity  to  see  it  ;  Catholicism,  not  Judaism, 
would  cause  the  silver  shrines  to  be  an  unmarketable  article. 

We  have  here  a  number  of  hints  which  I  think  may  give  us  a 
clue  to  the  object  and  connection  of  this  most  memorable  epistle. 
Here,  if  anywhere,  we  may  expect  to  find  the  ground  of  a  spirit- 
ual society  which  has  a  deeper  foundation  than  the  Jewish  call- 
ing or  covenant,  which  has  its  foundations  in  the  nature  of  God 
Himself,  which  explains  and  supports  all  human  relationships, 
which  has  all  spiritual  enemies  to  fight  with,  set  forth  less  con- 
troversially and  dogmatically  than  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Gala- 
tians,  with  less  allusion  to  Judaical  opposers,  with  more  direct 
reference  to  mankind  and  to  the  universe.  All  that  St.  Paul  has 
taught  and  borne  in  this  city,  its  own  position  as  one  of  the 
great  emporiums  of  the  world,  I  would  add,  those  fears  respect- 
ing future  disturbers  of  that  Church  which  he  could  not  dismiss 
from  his  mind  when  he  was  giving  his  affectionate  benediction  to 
the  elders  of  it  at  Miletus, — all  these  thoughts  must  have  been 
with  him  when  he  wrote,  deepened  by  reflections  which  came  to 
him  in  his  prison  hours,  on  the  relation  in  which  the  little  band 
in  Ephesus  stood  to  the  whole  family  in  earth  and  heaven,  and 
to  the  powers  of  darkness  which  were  striving  with  it,  but  should 
not  prevail  against  it. 

Though  there  is  so  much  in  the  opening  passage  of  this 
Epistle  respecting  adoption,  redemption,  the  forgiveness  of  sins, 
the  main  subject  of  it  is  certainly  not  to  be  sought  for  in  these 


364  LECTURE     II. 

words.  As  little  can  it  be  said  that  the  sin  or  fall  of  man  is  the 
starting-point  of  the  Apostle,  and  that  having  laid  the  foundation 
of  his  divinity  in  this,  he  proceeds  to  the  remedy.  The  doctrine 
of  the  rapturous  sentence,  which  is  not  merely  the  exordium  to 
the  letter,  but  the  enunciation  of  its  design,  is,  in  the  strictest 
sense  of  the  word,  supralapsarian.  The  Apostle  thanks  "  the 
Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  because  he  has  blessed  us  with 
all  spiritual  blessings  in  the  heavenlies  in  Christ,  even  as  He  chose 
us  out  in  Him  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  that  we  should 
be  holy  and  without  blame  before  Him  in  love."  Here,  as  the 
Predestinarian  school  rightly  assures  us,  is  the  assertion  of 
a  divine  purpose  which  was  to  be  executed  in  time,  but  which 
was  not  formed  in  time,  which  cannot  be  contemplated  in  refer- 
ence to  it  and  under  its  conditions.  And  they  cannot  be  wrong 
in  saying  that  the  rest  of  the  Epistle  is  unintelligible  if  the  divine 
purpose,  the  Eternal  Order,  of  which  the  Apostle  speaks  almost 
in  the  first  words  ot  it,  is  forgotten,  or  merged  in  any  of  the  acts 
or  events  by  which  it  was  realized ;  or  if  the  knowledge  of  that 
which  was  before  all  worlds — of  the  Divine  Mind,  which  can  be 
affected  by  no  accidents,  which  can  suffer  no  change — is  not 
contemplated  as  the  great  reward  and  fruition  which  the  Apostle 
is  holding  out  to  his  converts  and  the  whole  Church.  Most 
heartily  and  inwardly  do  I  assent  to  all  these  positions,  and 
desire  to  show  how  free  they  are  from  the  moral  dangers  which 
have  been  sometimes  imputed  to  them  by  Arminian  divines,  how 
little  they  need  to^be  restrained  and  qualified  ;  rather  how  much 
necessity  there  is  for  expanding  ihem  beyond  the  limitations 
which  the  Calvinistical  writers  have  imposed  upon  them. 

The  satisfactory  answer  to  the  charge  of  immorality  lies,  as 
the  truest  and  devoutest  Predestinarians  have  again  and  again 
alleged,  in  the  effect  which  the  divine  Election  is  said  to  produce, 
"That  we  may  be  holy  and  without  blame  before  Him  in  love." 
They  have  scarcely  done  full  justice  to  their  own  argument,  for 
they  have,  at  least  many  of  them  have — merely  asserted  that  the 
Apostle  never  contemplates  the  end  of  happiness  except  through 
the  means  of  holiness.     But   I  see   nothing  about  holiness  and 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    EPHESIANS.  365 

blamelessness   being   means    to    an   end.      There    is    indeed    a 
higher  object  contemplated  than   any  which  can  be  fulfilled  by 
any  condition    of   mind    and   character  in    particular    members 
of  the  Church,  or  in  the  whole  Church.     All  is  said  to  be  to  the 
praise  of  the  glory  of  His  grace.     All  is  tending  to  the  great 
result  of   gathering  together    all  things    in  Christ    as  a  Head, 
whether  things  in  heaven,  or  things  in  earth.     But  so  far  as  those 
are  concerned  whom  the  Apostle  includes  in  the  word  "  us,"  the 
being  holy  and  without  blame  is   treated  as  the  highest  blessing 
of  which  they  can  be   inheritors.     If  the  Election  in  Christ  has 
this  one  end,  how  can  it  be  injurious  to  the  inner  life  or  outward 
acts  of  men  that  they  should  believe   themselves  the  objects  of 
such  an  Election  ?    The  danger  is  evidently  that  they  should  not 
suppose  themselves  the  objects  of  it ;  that  they  should  think  God 
has  not  intended  them  to  be  holy,  or  has   not  given  them   the 
means  of  becoming  so.     Terrible  danger  certainly  lies  in  that 
belief  to  every  one  who  entertains  it ;  experience  shows  how  ter- 
rible  it   is.     If  we    do    any  thing  whatsoever  to  strengthen  or 
authorize  it  in  the  heart  of  any  man  whatsoever,  we  are  accessor- 
ies in  making  him  unholy  and  evil.     But  that  is  not  all  we  do. 
If  we  give  ourselves  credit  for  belonging  to  the  class  in  which  we 
do    not   include   him,  or   in    which  we  have  tempted   him    not 
to  include  himself,  we  have  put  own  Election  on  a  new  ground. 
It  is  no  longer  that  God,  being  holy,  wishes  the  creature  He  has 
made  in  His  image  to  be  like  Him.     It  is  that  being  Almighty  He 
has  been  able  to  decree  that  certain  persons,  of  whom   I  am  one, 
shall    have   certain  spiritual  and  divine   blessings.     I  call  them 
spiritual  and  divine  ;  but  do  I  mean  what  I  say  ?    A  spiritual  and 
divine   blessing  is   to  be    a  partaker  of  the  character  which  I 
account  most  spiritual   and  divine.     God,  as  I  have  represented 
Him  to   myself,    is  not   one  who  has   a  Will  to  all  good,   who 
merely  aims  at  what  is  good,  but  is  a  Great  Power,  who  can  do 
what  He  likes.     I  may  resemble  such  a  Being  :— it  is  too  probable 
that  within  my  own  sphere  I  shall   try  to  resemble   Him.     But 
this  cannot  be  my  ultimate  object.     It  must  be  to  get  something 
from  Him.     His  Will,  on  which  I  rest,  must  be  the  Will  to  con- 


366  LECTURE    II. 

fer  on  me  certain  tangible  benefits,  defined  by  m}^  own  particular 
taste,  from  which  other  men  are  excluded,  or  to  give  me  an 
exemption  from  certain  penalties  in  which  other  men  are  involved. 
The  spiritual  blessing  and  the  spiritual  curse  alike  vanish  upon 
this  hypothesis.  The  old  phrases  remain  ;  but  a  new  significa- 
tion has  been  given  to  them.  The  good  man  who  has  found  sin 
to  be  his  misery,  the  knowledge  of  God  his  blessing,  is  not  aware 
of  the  transformation.  He  uses  the  language  he  received  from 
godly  forefathers  in  the  sense  which  their  practice,  or  his  own 
experience,  taught  was  the  simple  and  natural  one.  But  how 
does  he  writhe  and  groan  at  the  discovery  that  words  of  life 
to  him  have  become  words  of  death  to  those  who  seem  most 
passionately  to  adopt  them,  and  of  death  also  to  some — evidently 
more  honest,  less  self-deceivers — who  cast  them  indignantly 
aside.  This  is  what  I  mean  by  saying  that  the  Calvinistical 
theory  requires  not  to  be  diluted  or  mitigated,  but  unfolded  ;  that 
its  poison  lies  not  in  the  breadth,  but  in  the  narrowness  of  its 
assertions  ;  that  it  becomes  mischievous  when  it  becomes  self- 
contradictory. 

How  great  this  contradiction  is,  will  appear,  I  think,  as 
we  proceed  to  examine  St.  Paul's  statement  in  this  Epistle,  and 
especially  those  words  which  the  Calvinistical  school  have  bor- 
rowed from  him.  "He  hath  chosen  out"  (l^^/.i^aro),  "having 
predestinated  "  (jzpoopifxac),  are  both  evidently  most  vital  words  in 
the  Apostle's  introduction  ;  their  importance  cannot  be  over- 
rated ;  they  deserve  the  most  careful  examination.  The  modern 
Calvinist  seems  to  take  it  for  granted  that  the  first  of  these 
expressions  must  denote  the  choosing  out  some  from  a  ruined 
mass,  or  majority.  Yet  there  is  no  illusion  to  ruin,  or  to  a 
majority.  The  Election  is  said  to  be  "  before  the  foundation  of 
the  world  ;"  not  only  before  the  world  suffered  any  loss  or  fall, 
but  before  it  had  been  called  into  existence.  "Oh  !  but  there, 
was,  of  course,  a  foresight  of  this  loss  and  fall."  You  assume 
that  there  was  ;  first,  because  you  confound  the  words 
i'sXe^aro  and  -pnwpiffs,  whereas  St.  Paul  carefully  distinguishes 
them,  appropriating  each  to  a  use  of  its  own  ;  secondly,  because 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    EPHESIANS.  36/ 

the  expression,  "  chosen  us  out  in  Him,"  suggests  to  you  the 
time  when  Christ  came  in  the  flesh.  Supposing  you  did  not 
mix  the  notion  of  His  appearance  with  what  is  here  said  of  Him, 
would  it  be  necessary  for  you  to  look  upon  this  election  as  in  any 
sense  2i foresight  1  Would  not  you  then  be  led  to  think  of  an 
Eternal  Son  of  God,  one  with  His  Father  before  all  worlds  ? 
And  would  not  this  election  be  really  what  the  Calvinists  say  it 
is,  not  in  time,  but  in  the  strictest  sense,  in  Eternity?  Adopt 
that  explanation  of  the  text,  or  reject  it,  as  you  please;  but 
it  cannot  surprise  you  that  as  I  have  been  tracing  the  revelation 
of  such  an  Eternal  Son  of  God  through  all  the  Gospels  which 
record  the  acts  of  Jesus  on  earth,  through  all  the  Epistles  which 
speak  of  Him  as  ascended  into  heaven,  I  should  at  once  recog- 
nize this  announcement  of  Him  as  most  Pauline,  most  consistent 
with  all  the  New  Testament  oracles.  "  But  why  '  elected  ? '  why 
not  '  constituted,'  or  some  phrase  of  that  kind  ?  "  Perhaps  we 
may  find  that  phrase,  and  equivalent  phrases,  occurring  fre- 
quently and  very  significantly  in  this  Epistle,  and  in  others 
which  we  have  considered  already,  or  may  consider  hereafter. 
But  the  expression,  "  He  hath  chosen  out,"  cannot  be  dispensed 
with  ;  no  other  can  exactly  supply  its  place.  The  participle, 
"constituted,"  if  not  qualified  or  interpreted  by  this,  might  lead 
us  to  think  of  the  order  of  an  involuntary  earth  which  cannot 
depart  from  its  law,  though  it  may  need  a  quickening,  renewing 
power  at  every  moment  to  make  it  bring  forth  and  bud  according 
to  that  law.  The  Apostle  carries  us  into  the  "  heavenlies  " — 
(not  the  "heavenly  places,"  as  our  translators  render  it,  so  per- 
verting the  idea  of  a  sentence  from  which  place  and  time 
are  carefully  excluded) — into  a  region  of  voluntary  beings, 
of  spirits,  standing  by  a  spiritual  law,  capable  of  a  spiritual 
blessing.  But  that  spiritual  law  must  be  one  of  allegiance  or 
affiance  to  God  ;  the  spiritual  or  heavenly  blessing  must  be  that 
of  being  subject  to  His  Will  or  choice.  The  character  of  that 
Will  or  choice,  the  certainty  and  security  of  it  because  it  is  the 
Will  or  choice  of  one  who  is  Righteous,  does  not  affect  in 
the  least    the    nature  of   the    tenure.     A  subject  Will  must  be 


368  LECTURE    II. 

chosen  and  upheld  by  the  higher  Will  ;  it  stands  by  His  knowl- 
edge or  apprehension  of  it.  This  principle  is  asserted  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  assumed  in  every  Epistle,  but  is 
nowhere  brought  out  with  so  much  distinctness  and  fulness  as 
here. 

If  election,  according  to  St.  Paul,  has  just  as  much,  and  just 
as  little,  to  do  with  foresight  or  pre-ordi nation,  as  creation  has, 
how  does  the  participle,  "having  predestinated,"  come  in?  Con- 
nect it  with  the  word  which  follows  it,  and  you  see  at  once. 
Having  predestinated  us  to  the  adoption  of  sons  ('jloO-frta). 
What  the  force  of  //ii's  expression  is  we  have  ascertained  from 
the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians.  St.  Paul  follows  the  analogy  of  the 
Roman  custom  strictly.  It  takes  place  when  one  who  is  already 
a  son  really  is  acknowledged  as  such  by  his  father,  and  is 
emancipated  from  the  bondage  and  pupillage  to  which  he  has 
been  subject  during  his  infancy.  God  having  chosen  us  in  His 
Son  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  designed  to  declare  this 
election,  to  show  what  we  are  by  manifesting  Him.  Then  we 
hear  for  the  first  time,  in  connection  with  this  adoption,  of  the 
redemption  and  remission  of  transgressions.  The  sons,  being 
claimed,  are  delivered  from  their  servitude  to  masters,  whether 
such  as  the  Father  has  appointed  over  them,  or  such  as  they 
have  chosen  for  themselves — rightful  schoolmasters  or  illegiti- 
mate usurpers.  The  sons  having  broken  the  laws  of  their 
Father's  house — whether  those  laws  have  been  openly  and 
formally  made  known  to  them,  or  only  revealed  to  them  in  their 
hearts  and  conscience — must  have  a  forgiveness  or  release 
of  their  offences.  To  omit  these  wonderful  acts  of  redemption 
and  amnesty  would  be  to  fail  in  explaining  how  the  original  and 
eternal  purpose  of  the  Father  is  accomplished — how  it  is 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  conditions  of  human  creatures.  But 
the  Apostle  doel^  not  linger  upon  these  acts.  -He  does  not 
investigate  their  nature  and  operation,  but  crowds  them  rapidly 
together,  fearful  lest  the  main  subject  of  his  thanksgiving  and  of 
his  teaching  on  this  occasion  should  be  forgotten  in  any  of  its 
most  precious  and  mysterious  details. 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    EPHESIANS.  369 

It  would  indeed  amply  repay  the  longest  study  to  examine  the 
order  in  which  these  details  are  introduced,  in  what  relation  they 
stand  to  each  other,  how  they  are  all  referred  to  one  ground,  the 
good  pleasure  of  His  Will,  and  to  one  end,  the  gathering  up  all 
things  in  Christ ;  the  divine  Wisdom  and  Prudence  devising 
them  and  making  them  conduce  to  this  object — not  suddenly  but 
gradually  revealing  the  mystery  of  His  Will.  But  however 
desirable  the  minute  investigation  is  after  the  road  has  been 
travelled  frequently,  the  reader  must  allow  the  Apostle  to  carry 
him  along  at  his  own  speed  on  his  own  wings,  if  he  would  know 
any  thing  of  the  height  from  which  he  is  descending  and  to  which 
he  is  returning. 

It  will  seem  to  some  that  the  great  question  of  all,  in  these 
early  sentences  and  in  the  epistle  generally,  cannot  be  settled 
unless  we  can  determine  who  are  included  in  the  word  "  us," 
which  St.  Paul  uses  in  the  third  verse  and  so  often  afterwards. 
I  confess  that  I  do  not  feel  the  least  solicitude  on  this  point.  If 
the  pronoun  was  in  the  dual  number  or  in  the  singular  I  should 
be  content.  If  St.  Paul  had  been  the  only  person  in  the  world 
who  had  been  brought  to  believe  in  the  true  God — to  believe  that 
He  was  not  such  a  God  as  the  chief  priests  of  the  heathens  or  of 
the  Jews  took  him  to  be,  and  that  His  only-begotten  Son  is  the 
Centre  of  all  things  in  heaven  and  earth,  in  whom  they  v/ould  be 
gathered  up,  he  must  give  thanks  to  God  for  having  imparted 
that  knowledge  to  him,  for  having  chosen  him  in  Christ  that  he 
might  be  holy  and  blameless.  He  could  not  dare  to  deny  that 
calling,  whether  he  was  walking  worthy  of  it  or  no  ;  God  would 
rebuke  him  in  his  conscience  if  he  said,  "  Thou  has  not  called 
me  and  chosen  me  to  be  holy."  Supposing  then  he  and  "  those 
who  first  hoped  in  Christ"  formed  the  most  insignificant  section 
in  the  world,  he  could  not  help  feeling  that  they  represented  the 
true  condition  of  humanity,  the  purpose  and  will  of  God  con- 
cerning it.  For  he  had  called  them  to  be  sons.  How  ?  St. 
Paul  says,  by  causing  "  His  Son  to  be  made  of  a  woman,  made 
under  the  law."  Christ  becoming  a  man,  subjecting  Himself  to 
the  actual  conditions  of  suffering  and  dying  man,  so  claims  us  to 

24. 


370  LECTURE     II. 

be  sons.  If  he  took  upon  him  not  the  nature  of  Paul  or  James, 
but  of  men,  He  claimed  not  Paul  or  James  but  men  to  be 
his  sons.  And  since,  according  to  the  doctrine  of  the  chapter, 
the  adoption  to  Sonship  on  earth  corresponds  to  the  election  in 
the  heavenlies,  cannot  be  more  extensive  than  that,  it  must  fol- 
low that  what  St.  Paul  asserts  on  behalf  of  himself  and  the  little 
band  of  those  who  had  turned  to  God  and  believed  in  Christ, 
was  a  share  in  the  privileges  of  humanity  as  that  is  created 
elected,  known  by  God  in  Christ.  For  the  original  purpose 
before  the  foundation  of  the  world  must  be  that  of  which  Adam's 
sin  and  the  sin  of  every  descendant  of  Adam  is  the  contraven- 
tion and  denial  ;  every  man  trying  to  stand  by  himself,  and  not  to 
stand  upon  God's  election,  is  on  a  fallen,  rebellious,  false  ground  ; 
every  man  claiming  the  privilege  of  God's  election,  now  manifest- 
ed to  all  in  Christ,  affirms  that  neither  Adam's  sin,  nor  all  the  sin 
of  the  world,  has  been  able  to  defeat  the  design  of  the  Creator. 

The  Apostle  therefore  can  pass,  without  the  least  diffidence  or 
hesitation,  from  "  us  "  who  have  first  hoped  in  Christ,  to  "  you  " 
who  have  heard  the  word  of  truth,  and  believed  the  Gospel 
of  your  salvation.  The  word  of  truth  was,  that  God  had  sent 
his  Son,  made  of  a  woman,  made  under  the  law,  that  they  might 
receive  the  adoption  of  sons.  The  Gospel  of  their  salvation 
was,  that  Christ  had  redeemed  them  from  a  curse  and  bondage, 
anji  brought  them  into  His  body  of  which  He  was  the  head. 
This  word  of  truth,  this  Gospel,  had  been  preached  to  them 
before  they  believed  it.  They  had  believed  it  in  consequence  of  the 
preaching  ;  their  belief  therefore  did  not  confine  it  to  them.  But 
having  believed,  they  were  sealed  with  the  Holy  Spirit  of 
promise.  That  Spirit  was  the  pledge  and  assurance  that  they 
were  partakers  of  that  adoption  which  was  proclaimed  to  man  in 
Christ  the  Son  of  God  and  the  Son  of  Man,  of  that  Redemption 
which  He  had  procured  for  men  by  encountering  their  tyrants — 
Death,  the  grave,  hell,  the  spirit  of  evil.  And  this  same  Spirit 
was  the  earnest  of  an  inheritance  into  which  they  should  enter 
when  He  who  had  purchased  them  should  come  to  claim  them 
as  His. 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    EPHESIANS.  371 

St.    Paul   is  certain   that  they  have  believed  what  they  had 
a  right  to  believe,  what  was  true  for  them,  and  for  those  who  did 
not  believe  it.     And  he  has  no  doubt  that  the  Spirit  of  Truth — 
that  Spirit  who  had  been  mocked  and  parodied  by  the  spirits  of 
which  the  enchanters  boasted,  those  which  were  spoken  of  in  the 
curious  books    they  had  burnt— was  with    them,  binding  them 
together  in  one,  prompting  them  to  love  and  good  works.     He 
has  therefore  ground  for  continual  thanksgiving  on  their  behalf. 
But  he  has  a  motive  also  to  continual  prayer,  that  they  may  have 
an  ever-fresh  and  increasing  wisdom  and  revelation — illuminated 
eyes   in   their  hearts,  so  that  they  may  know  what  their  calling 
means,  what    the   hope  of   it  is,  what  the  wealth  of   the  glory 
of  God's  inheritance  in  the  saints  is  ;  what  the  surpassing  magni- 
tude of  his  power  is  towards  those  who  are  believing  in  it,  that 
belief  itself  being  the  effect  of  the  energizing  of  this  power.     We 
sink  at  first  under  the  weight  of  this  language  ;  the  reader  may 
be  tempted  to  cry  out  with  Festus,   "  Thou  art  beside  thyself, 
Paul !  "     But  if  he  has  that  kind  of  madness  which  the  ancients 
identified  with  the  highest  inspiration,  it  is    compatible  with  the 
most   entire     practical     soberness.     The    only   hope    that    the 
Ephesians  would  be  preserved  from  the  fanaticism   and  inebria- 
tion which  the  dealers  in  magic  were  propagating  was,  that  they 
should  confess  themselves  to  be  under  the  guidance  of  a  Spirit 
in   the  strictest  sense  familiar,  but  awful,  one  who  was   leading 
them  into  the  apprehension  of  objects  real  as  any  of  those  with 
which  their  senses  conversed,  but  not  fluctuating— into  the  knowl- 
edge of  the   Eternal   Being  who  had  first  taken  knowledge   of 
them.     And   St.  Paul  cannot  think  that  he   is  preaching  Christ 
while  he  is  hiding  from  them  the  truth  that  they  have  received 
this  Spirit,  or  the  truth  of  that  calling  or  election  whereof  this 
Spirit  is  the  seal,  or  the  truth  of  that  inheritance  whereof  it  is  the 
earnest.     For  he  can  only  measure  that  power  which  is  working 
in  each  Ephesian  convert,  in  each  miserable  creature  of  that  city, 
into  which  the  refuse  of  the    earth  was  poured,  by  the  power 
which  energized  in  Christ  when  God  raised  Him  from  the   dead 
and  exalted  Him  on  high.     The  mysterious  operation  of  that 


372  LECTURE    II. 

Divine  Spirit  who  in  death  and  the  grave  still  united  the  Son  of 
Man  to  the  Father,  who  enabled  him  by  that  union  to  triumph  over 
the  fetters  of  space  and  time,  this  is  not  the  type  or  image  of  that 
operation  which  begets  faith  in  the  most  naturally  sense-bound 
man,  and  raises  him  into  union  with  the  risen  and  ascended 
Lord  j  it  is  the  very  same.  St.  Paul  cannot  separate  them  ;  if  he 
did,  the  believer  might  fancy  that  his  holiness  was  some  peculiar 
possession,  that  the  Spirit  had  been  given  to  him  individually.  He 
would  not  understand  that  he  was  only  faithful,  only  holy,  when 
he  was  lifted  out  of  himself,  when  he  was  acknowledging  himself 
the  member  of  a  living  body,  united  to  a  living  Head,  that  body 
being  the  fulness  of  Him  that  filleth  all  in  all,  of  Him  to  whom 
every  lordship,  and  principality,  and  power,  in  this  age  and 
in  the  age  to  come,  is  subjected. 

Christ  being  then  proclaimed  as  the  Head  and  reconciler  of 
the  two  worlds,  as  the  fulfiller  of  God's  original  purpose  and 
election  to  those  who  had  fallen  from  it,  he  can  speak  to  the 
Ephesians  as  men  who,  being  dead  in  trespasses,  God  had  quick- 
ened with  Christ.  The  words  which  are  interposed  between  the 
accusative  and  its  verb  help  wonderfully  to  illustrate  the  mean- 
ing of  the  Apostle,  and  show  what  is  the  thought  which  has  pos- 
session of  him.  The  Ephesians  were  walking  according  to  the 
course  (fuorMj)  of  this  world  ;  they  were  following  the  ruler  of 
the  power  of  the  air,  the  spirit  that  is  energizing  in  the  children 
of  disobedience,  among  whom  the  Apostle  declares  that  he  him- 
self, and  all  his  Christian  brethren,  Jews  or  Gentiles,  had  once 
their  conversation  {ayearpdiprjiit'^)^  doing  the  inclinations  of  the 
flesh,  and  of  the  thoughts  of  the  mind  (^favofwv),  and  were 
by  nature  the  children  of  impulse  (^m?)  like  others.  This 
language  I  apprehend  shows  us  from  what  he  believes  Christ 
had  redeemed  or  emancipated  them.  It  was  a  bondage  of  the 
will.  The  will  was  enslaved  to  nature ;  it  looked  upon  itself  as 
belonging  to  the  outside  world,  as  chained  to  fate  or  necessity. 
It  was  actually  so  chained,  because  a  spirit  of  unbelief  and  dis- 
obedience had  got  the  mastery  of  it,  because  it  had  exercised  its 
awful  prerogative  of  choice  by  submitting  to  a  tyrant  who   com- 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    EPHESIANS.  373 

pelled  it  to  fulfil  his  behests.  The  careless  reader  thinks  that 
St.  Paul  is  accumulating  clauses  and  epithets  unnecessarily,  to 
describe  the  character  of  this  bondage  ;  that  we  should  have 
understood  the  subject  better  if  he  had  chosen  any  one  of  his 
different  forms  of  expression  ;  that  there  must  be  tautology  in 
them,  if  there  is  not  contradiction.  But  the  more  we  are  ac- 
quainted with  the  efforts  of  philosophers  to  formalize  the  facts 
which  exhibit  the  liberty  and  servitude  of  man— the  proofs  that 
he  has  a  will  while  he  is  yoked  to  the  car  of  fate— the  more  we 
have  known  of  the  contradictions  in  ourselves  to  which  these 
experiments  of  theirs  correspond— the  more  shall  we  appreciate 
the  worth  and  the  inspiration  of  this  language,  which  sets  forth 
the  case  as  it  is,  with  all  its  perplexities  and  anomalies  ;  which 
shows  whence  those  anomalies  and  perplexities  proceed,  how 
frightful  they  needs  must  be  when  a  spirit  falls  under  that  which 
is  sensual  and  hugs  its  fetters ;  how  impossible  it  is  to  find  any 
way  out  of  them,  if  we  will  not  recognize  the  existence  of  a  dis- 
obedient Spirit,  if  we  will  not  believe  that  this  Spirit  is  at  war 
with  God  as  well  as  man,  and  that  God  by  claiming  men  as  his 
sons  declares  his  yoke  to  be  broken. 

I  shall  not  enter  into  the  questions  which  this  passage  sug- 
gests respecting  the  "  wishes  or  inclinations  of  the  flesh  or  the 
thoughts,^'  because  I  apprehend  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  de- 
termines the  sense  of  those  words,  which  sense  is  strictly  appli- 
cable here.  Nor  shall  I  justify  my  deviation  Erom  the  usual 
rendering  of  the  word  dpyii  (wrath,  anger).  It  must  justify  itself 
if  it  is  good  for  any  thing  and  consistent  with  the  context ;  other- 
wise let  the  old  translation  abide,  to  which  I  have  no  objection, 
except  that  it  seems  to  me  irrelevant,  and  to  presume  an  ellipsis, 
which  we  should  avoid  when  we  can.  What  I  do  wish  the  reader 
to  remark  very  carefully,  and  I  should  be  sorry  if  any  mere  acci- 
dents of  the  passage  detained  him  from  the  observation,  is  the 
use  of  the  three  compounds  fTuvzZioo-o(ri(Tzv  (has  co-vivified), 
(joWjyetpzv  (has  co-raised),  and  (TU'^^/.dOcffsv  (has  co-seated)— quick- 
ened together  with,  raised  together  with,  set  down  together  with. 
The  idea  which  is  indicated  by  these  verbs  is  that  which  it  seems 


374  LECTURE    II. 

the  design  of  the  Epistle  to  develope.  The  quickening,  raising, 
ascending,  are  declared  to  have  taken  place  already.  The 
Apostle  does  not  say  this  by  a  bold  figure  of  speech.  He  can- 
not speak  otherwise  if  he  is  to  be  scientifically  accurate,  if  he  is 
to  lay  any  foundation  for  practical  faith  and  obedience.  The 
clause  which  follows,  "  that  he  may  show  forth  to  the  ages  that 
are  coming  on,  the  surpassing  wealth  of  his  grace  in  his  good- 
ness towards  us  in  Christ  Jesus,"  connects  the  past  revelation 
with  the  future,  the  completed  manifestation  of  God's  love  in 
Christ,  and  of  man's  state  as  redeemed  in  Him,  with  the  perpet- 
ually new  and  growing  discovery  of  that  love  and  that  state  by 
all  the  experiences  of  the  universe,  even  by  all  the  experiences 
of  men's  rebellion. 

For  he  continues,  By  this  grace — the  grace  that  is  to  be  shown 
forth  in  all  coming  aeons — ye  have  been  saved,  completely  saved 
out  of  the  hands  of  the  tyrant  ;  completely  restored  to  your  spir- 
itual estate  as  sons.  It  is  God's  grace  which  has  delivered  your 
wills.  And  you  claim  your  salvation,  your  freedom,  by  believing 
in  your  Saviour.  Yet  even  this — this  act  of  faith — does  not 
come  forth  from  you ;  it  is  God's  gift.  For  we  are  redeemed 
that  we  may  carry  out  the  divine  "purpose  in  our  creation.  We 
are  created  to  good  works,  which  God  hath  before  ordained  that 
we  should  work  in  them.  Our  wills  are  in  their  true  restored 
state,  when  responding,  conforming  to  His  will  ;  so  they  become 
productive  of  good  deeds. 

The  passage  which  follows  is  eminently  Pauline.  He  ad- 
dresses the  Gentiles  as  having  been  fleshly,  given  up  to  their 
own  fleshly  notions  and  appetites,  and  to  fleshly  gods,  and  there- 
fore as  really  uncircumcised,  but  as  receiving  the  name  uncir- 
cumcised,  because  they  wanted  the  fleshly  sign  of  a  spiritual 
calling  which  their  Jewish  neighbors  possessed.  He  reminds 
them  that  their  misery  was  not  this, — that  they  wanted  the  sign, 
— but  that  they  were  without  Christ — not  acquainted  with  the 
true  Lord  of  their  spirits,  alienated  from  the  polity  of  Israel, 
which  existed  to  testify  of  Him  and  of  His  mysterious  dominion  ; 
strangers  to  those  Covenants  of  Promise  which  spoke  of  God's 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    EPHESIANS.  3/5 

election  of  men  to  be  his  servants  and  people  ;  not  having  hope 
of  the  future,  rather  having  a  continual  dread  of  it ;  without  God 
therefore  in  the  world  which  He  had  made, — in  the  midst  of  His 
own  order, — however  many  gods  they  might  fashion  out  of  that 
world.  He  calls  upon  them  to  remember  and  believe  that  they, 
being  in  this  condition,  being  so  far  from  God,  so  far  from  any 
divine  fellowship  or  polity,  had  become  nigh  in  Christ,  nigh  to 
God,  nigh  to  each  other,  and  to  those  Jews  who  seemed  divided 
by  siich  hopeless  barriers  from  them.  The  blood  of  Christ — 
that  blood  which  He  by  the  Eternal  Spirit  had  poured  forth — 
was  the  quickening  life-blood  of  the  whole  body,  removing  what- 
ever had  kept  the  different  parts  of  it  divided  from  each  other. 
For  He  is  our  peace,  who  hath  made  both  races,  the  circumcised 
and  the  uncircumcised,  one  ;  having  dissoh^ed  in  Himself  the 
middle  wall  of  partition  between  them — having  annulled  the  ac- 
tual enmity  between  them,  which  arose  from  their  occupying  a 
different  religious  position,  as  well  as  the  divine  decree,  which 
seemed  to  declare;  "These  are  spiritual,  these  are  carnal  ;  "  that 
he  might  create  the  two  in  Him  one  new  man,  one  common  hu- 
manity, making  reconciliation  between  them,  in  virtue  of  the 
higher  reconciliation  which  he  had  made  between  both  and  God  ; 
in  virtue  of  his  having  slain  in  His  body  on  the  Cross  that  deep 
er  and  more  dreadful  enmity  between  the  distrustful  rebelling 
creature  and  the  loving,  self-sacrificing  Creator.  And  having 
accomplished  His  work,  He  proclaimed  His  great  covenant  of 
peace  between  heaven  and  earth,  to  those  who  were  far  off  from 
any  spiritual  apprehensions  and  worship,  and  to  those  whom  God 
had  brought  nigh  to  Himself  by  His  calling  and  education.  A 
Gospel  of  peace  indeed,  for  through  Him  we  both  have  access 
to  the  same  Father  by  the  same  Spirit.  So  then,  he  concludes, 
you  are  not  strangers,  newly  admitted  to  visit  the  divine  city, — 
like  the  chance  comers  for  purposes  of  trade  to  Ephesus, — or 
like  those  who  have  a  sojourn  or  quarter  provided  them  in  its 
outskirts.  You  are  citizens  of  this  divine  city,  which  includes  in 
it  all  the  holy  men  of  all  ages.  You  belong  to  God's  own  house- 
hold and  family.      You  have  been   established  upon   the  very 


3/6  LECTURE     II. 

foundation  on  which  Prophets  and  Apostles  stood  and  stand. 
Christ  is  the  Corner  Stone  who  holds  them  and  you  together. 
In  Him  the  whole  building  fitly  framed  together  shall  grow  to  a 
holy  temple  in  the  Lord  ;  in  Him  you  have  been  built  together, 
— your  whole  Church,  all  its  members, — for  an  habitation  of  God 
through  the  Spirit. 

Every  one  must  be  conscious  of  an  overflowing  fulness  in  the 
style  of  this  Epistle,  as  if  the  Apostle's  mind  could  not  contain 
the  thoughts  that  were  at  work  in  him,  as  if  each  one  tlmt  he 
uttered  had  a  luminous  train  before  it  and  behind  it,  from  which 
it  could  not  disengage  itself.  Nowhere  does  this  sequence  of 
thoughts  appear  to  be  more  disturbed,  according  to  ordinary 
rules  of  arrangement,  than  in  the  passage  immediately  following 
the  one  of  which  I  have  just  spoken  ;  nowhere  is  there  a  stricter 
order,  one  which  more  justifies  itself  to  the  higher  reason.  It  is 
in  this  passage  that  one  seems  to  discover  the  subject  of  the 
Apostle's  elaborate  composition,  the  centre  of  its  harmony.  An 
unhappy  mistake  of  our  translators,  in  the  sixth  verse  of  the 
third  chapter,  has,  I  think,  prevented  us  from  feeling  how  true 
this  is  ;  how  much  light  is  thrown  all  around  the  letter  from  that 
revelation  which  the  Apostle  speaks  of  here,  as  not  made  to 
former  ages,  but  as  now  made  to  Apostles  and  Prophets  by  the 
Spirit.  We  read  "  that  the  Gentiles  should  be  fellow-heirs  and  of 
the  same  body."  How  "should  be  .?"  Was  not  the  Apostle  the 
messenger  of  a  reconciliation  which  had  been  effected,  of  a  mid- 
dle wall  which  had  been  broken  down  ?  Whatever  is  the  mean- 
ing of  the  Apostle,  this  cannot  be  his  meaning.  He,  the  Apostle 
of  the  Gentiles,  cannot  be  telling  them  of  a  blessing  which  was 
to  come  upon  them  hereafter.  He  might  look  forward  amidst 
sorrow  and  despondency,  when  ready  to  be  accursed  from  Christ 
for  his  brethren's  sake,  to  a  time  when  all  Israel  should  be 
saved.  But  he  was  the  herald  of  a  gift  which  had  been  bestowed 
upon  the  Gentiles,  he  invited  them  to  enter  the  fold.  On  what 
ground  ?  Because  it  had  been  shown  him  that  the  Gentiles  are 
lellow-heirs  and  of  the  same  body.  Beginning  from  that  highest 
ground  before  the  Fall,  before  the   Creation,  he  had   seen  God 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    EPHESIANS.  377 


creating  all  things  in  Christ,  God  purposing  to  gather  up  all 
things  in  Christ,  men  standing  only  in  virtue  of  God's  election 
of  them  in  Christ.  So  the  truth  dawned  upon  him,  that  all  men, 
of  whatever  race  or  tongue,  do  constitute  one  body  in  Him  ;  that 
out  of  Him,  whether  circumcised  or  uncircumcised,  they  must  be 
divided ;  since  in  Him,  whether  circumcised  or  uncircumcised, 
they  are  one,  by  the  law  of  their  creation,  and  become  actually 
one,  when  they  believe  that  law  and  submit  to  it. 

Here  was  the  foundation  of  a  Gospel,  the  Gospel  with  which 
St.  Paul  was  entrusted  ;  good  news  to  men,  not  of  something 
which  was  coming  to  them,  but  of  their  actual  state,  of  that  state 
which  belongs  to  them,  but  which  they  do  not  recognize.  The 
grace  was  given  to  him  that  he  should  preach  among  the  Gen- 
tiles the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ.  He  desired  to  make  all 
see  (so  we  render  ipioriaai,  and  I  do  not  perceive  how  we  could 
render  it  better)  what  is  the  economy  of  the  mystery  that  has 
been  hidden  from  the  ages  in  God,  who  hath  created  all  things. 
That  truth  of  man's  condition  which  had  been  unveiling  itself  ui 
proportion  as  God  had  unveiled  Himself  to  man,  that  truth  had ' 
now  become  apprehensible  by  all  creatures.  They  might  be  told 
of  it,  they  might  know  it.  And  the  effect  of  this  revelation  was 
not  to  be  measured  by  the  number  of  persons  who  might  receive 
it  then  or  in  any  after  age,  among  Jews  or  Gentiles,  among  any 
inhabitants  of  this  planet.  The  revelation  of  God's  love  in 
Christ,  of  Christ's  incarnation,  and  sacrifice,  and  resurrection,  of 
the  victory  over  fallen  and  rebellious  wills,  was  a  revelation  to 
the  whole  \miverse,  to  the  principalities  and  powers  in  heavenly 
places.  The  Church,  however  small  its  numbers,  however  insig- 
nificant its  members,  declared  to  them  the  manifold  wisdom  of 
God,  according  to  the  fore-arrangement  of  the  ages  which  He 
made  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord.* 

Such   a  flight   as  this  might,  one  would  have   thought,  have 

*  It  does  not  seem  to  me  that  the  words  "  eternal  purpose  which  He  pur- 
posed "  are  sufficiently  literal,  or  convey  the  sense  of  the  original.  Surely 
there  is  an  idea  of  the  arrangement  or  fore-ordination  of  ages  and  periods 
which  this  expression  fails  to  impart  to  us. 


378  LECTURE    II. 

tempted  the  Apostle  to  forget  the  poor  humble  sinful  creatures 
to  whom  he  had  been  writing.  Their  well-being  might  have 
been  lost  sight  of  in  the  glory  of  principalities  and  powers.  But 
it  is  not  so.  He  cannot  even  conclude  his  sentence  without  say- 
ing, "  in  whom  we  have  boldness  and  access  with  confidence  by 
the  faith  of  Him."  And  this  confidence  and  this  faith  remind 
the  Apostle  of  all  the  discipline  by  which  he  has  been  led  into 
them — of  those  tribulations  which  had  often  shaken  the  faith  of 
his  converts,  though  it  was  to  them  he  owed  his  power  of  enter- 
ing into  their  sufferings,  and  his  apprehension  of  the  glory  of 
which  they  were  inheritors  together. 

I  believe  that  there  was  in  the  Apostle's  mind  at  this  time,  a 
sense  of  opposites,  of  the  union  of  weakness  and  strength,  of 
tribulation  and  glory,  of  all  that  had  been  and  all  that  was  to 
be,  of  the  absolute  love  of  God,  of  the  discovery  of  that  love  to 
man  in  the  Mediator,  of  the  working  of  that  love  in  man  through 
the  Spirit,  of  the  fellowship  of  the  poorest  creature  of  flesh  and 
blood  on  earth  with  the  spirits  in  Heaven,  of  a  canopy  of  love 
above  and  of  an  abyss  of  love  beneath  compassing  the  whole 
creation,  which  could  only  find  its  expression  in  a  prayer. 

And  this  is  the  prayer  : — "  For  this  cause  I  bow  my  knees 
unto  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  of  whom  the  whole 
family  in  heaven  and  earth  is  named,  that  he  would  grant  you 
according  to  the  riches'  of  his  glory,  to  be  strengthened  with 
might  by  his  Spirit  in  the  inner  man  ;  that  Christ  may  dwell  in 
your  hearts  by  faith;  that  ye,  being  rooted  and  grounded  in 
love,  may  be  able  to  comprehend  with  all  saints  what  is  the 
breadth,  and  length,  and  depth,  and  height ;  and  to  know  the 
love  of  Christ,  which  passeth  knowledge,  that  ye  might  be  filled 
with  all  the  fulness  of  God.  Now  unto  him  that  is  able  to  do 
exceeding  abundantly  above  all  that  we  ask  or  think,  according 
to  the  power  that  worketh  in  us,  unto  him  be  glory  in  the  church 
by  Christ  Jesus  throughout  all  ages,  world  without  end.    Amen." 

Our  translators  have  taken  the  whole  of  the  third  chapter  as  a 
parenthesis.  With  much  more  justification  from  the  Apostle's 
words  (rooTou  ;^a/>£^  being  at  the  beginning  both  of  the  first  and 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    EPHESIANS.  379 

of  the  fourteenth  verse),  Lachmann  terminates  the  parenthesis 
at  the  beginning  of  the  prayer.  There  is  no  reason  why  St. 
Paul  should  not  repeat  the  expression  so  familiar  to  him,  "  the 
prisoner  in  the  Lord,"  without  having  any  conscious  reference 
to  the  same  phrase  as  it  stands  in  the  beginning  of  a  passage 
occurring  so  long  before.  What  follows  arises  out  of  the  revela- 
tion which  he  has  spoken  of  and  the  supplication  which  was 
based  upon  it.  He  beseeches  them  to  walk  worthy  of  the  call- 
ing wherewith  they  had  been  called, — that  calling  which  had 
carried  out  the  purpose  of  God  before  the  worlds  were, — that 
calling  of  men  who  had  been  hostile  to  each  other  in  form  and 
in  spirit, — whom  God  himself  seemed  to  have  divided, — to  be 
one  body,  to  have  one  spirit,  one  hope,  one  Lord,  one  faith,  one 
baptism,  one  God  and  Father  of  all.  They  were  to  remember 
that  these  were  the  blessings  which  had  been  bestowed  upon 
them,  blessings  which  it  would  require  a  strenuous  eJideavor  to 
preserve.  The  danger  lay  in  their  thinking  that  they  were  to 
create  a  state  for  themselves,  instead  of  accepting  one  and  abid- 
ing in  it.  Lowliness  of  mind,  gentleness,  long-suffering,  forbear- 
ance—qualities apparently  negative  rather  than  positive,  were 
the  qualities  that  were  demanded  of  them  that  they  might  enter 
into  the  rich  inheritance  which  had  been  freely  bestowed  upon 
them. 

But  these  blessings  were  common  to  all.  The  one  Lord  and 
one  faith  were  for  the  Church,  for  the  whole  body.  The  Apos- 
tle here,  as  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  is  careful  to  show 
that  each  individual  has  also  his  own  gift.  He  who  had  ascend- 
ed on  high,  as  the  emancipator  of  man  from  all  his  bondage, — 
an  ascent  implying  a  previous  descent,  a  claim  to  possess  the 
very  lowest  corners  of  the  earth,  a  victory  over  the  whole  uni- 
verse— He  had  bestowed  these  gifts  exactly  in  their  due  measure 
and  proportion.  He  had  given  apostles,  prophets,  evangelists, 
pastors,  teachers;  but  each  with  a  view  to  the  edification  and 
consolidation  of  the  whole  body.  Each  was  a  step  to  the  great 
end  which  would  be  accomplished  when  all  should  meet  together 
in  the  unity  of  the  faith  and  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God, 


380  LECTURE    II. 

when  all  the  scattered  portions  of  humanity  should  be  gathered 
into  the  perfect  Man,  should  reach  the  full  stature  of  the  Christ. 
These  gifts  and  ministries  were  contributing  to  educate  those 
who  received  them  out  of  the  state  of  infancy  into  this  manhood  j 
out  of  the  condition  in  which  they  were  the  sports  of  every 
chance  current  of  doctrine, — liable  to  be  carried  round  and  round 
in  endless  circles  of  error  by  the  craft  and  sleights  of  deceitful 
men, — into  a  condition  of  steadfast  love,  of  steadfast  truth  in  act 
and  speech,  but  a  steadfastness  which  implies  perpetual  growth 
into  Him  who  is  the  Head  of  the  body ;  into  Him  from  whom 
the  body  derives  all  its  form  and  compactness,  as  well  as  a  con- 
tinual renewal  of  its  vital  energy,  the  life  of  each  part  ever  con- 
ducing to  the  life  of  the  whole. 

In  this  flight  or  rapture  St.  Paul  has  never  lost  sight  of  his 
original  principle,  that  God  is  regenerating  and  reconstituting 
humanity  in  Christ  according  to  that  original  purpose  which  he 
had  purposed  before  the  worlds  were.  Nor  does  he  ever  lose 
sight  of  the  practical  result  of  this  divine  purpose  to  the  Ephe- 
sians  particularly,  and  to  the  Gentiles  generally.  All  the  exhor- 
tations which  follow  to  the  very  end  of  the  Epistle  assume  as 
their  groundwork  that  the  true  state  of  man,  and  consequently 
their  state,  is  now  revealed  in  Christ ;  that  a  divine  illumination 
was  all  about  them  and  within  them  ;  and  that  if  they  did  not 
live  in  it,  if  their  lives  were  not  clear  and  orderly,  it  was  because 
they  were  shutting  their  eyes. 

The  next  passage  brings  out  with  great  clearness  and  power 
the  Apostle's  idea  of  the  distinction  between  the  new  and  old 
man.  He  does  not  for  a  moment  admit  that  the  Gentiles  had 
not  a  light  near  them,  that  there  was  not  a  life  of  God  within 
them.  But  he  speaks  of  their  minds  being  darkened,  of  their 
being  alienated  from  the  life  of  God  through  the  ignorance  that 
was  in  them.  He  accounts  for  that  ignorance  by  the  hardening 
of  the  heart,  which  hardening  was  itself  the  effect  of  the  loss  of 
feeling  that  comes  when  men  give  themselves  over  to  lascivious- 
ness — to  the  working  of  uncleanness  with  greediness.  On  the 
other  hand,  he   does  not  allow  the  baptized  Ephesians  to  think 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    EPHESIANS.  38 1 

that  the    evil  which  had  been  in  them  in  former  days  was  not  in 
them  still,  that  they  were  not  likely  to  walk  as  the  other  Gentiles 
walked.     Only  they  need   not  so  walk.     They  had  been  taught 
of  the  Christ,   the  true  Light,   the   true   Lord   of   their  spirits. 
They  had  heard  of  him  and  been  taught  in  Him  as  the   truth  is 
in  Jesus.     In  other  words,  they  had  heard  how  that  divine   life 
of  God  had  been  fully  exhibited  in  the  acts  of  a  man.     They 
might  know  by  what  He  was,  that  which  He  would  have  them 
to  be.     They  might  put  off  the  old  man,  the  one  with  whom  they 
had  had  their  converse  hitherto,  that  old  man  that  was  corrupt 
by  following   after  deceitful  lusts.     They  might  be  renewed   in 
the  spirit  of  their  mind,  and  put   upon  them  the  new  man,  that 
man  who  was  created  after  God  in  righteousness  and  holiness  of 
truth.     Thus  then  the  new  Man  was  that  true  and  divine  Man 
with  whom  their  spirits  had  to  do,  of  whom  their  consciences 
testified  till  they  had   drowned   them  in  lusts,  who   had  now  re- 
vealed Himself  to   and   in   man   as   his  righteous   Lord,  whose 
righteousness  the  man  who  trusted  in  it  and  rejoiced  in  it,  could 
claim  as  his  own. 

There  being  this  righteousness,  a  righteousness  for  them  one 
and  all,  not  as  separate  creatures,  but  as  members  of  a  body,  St. 
Paul  could  bid  them  speak  truth  every  one  with  his  neighbor, 
could  bid  them  keep  the  anger  which  he  would  not  have  them 
stifle,  under  such  government  that  they  should  not  injure  one  an- 
other. He  could  bid  the  robber  become  the  laborer  and  the 
giver,  and  the  foul  and  filthy  speaker  utter  gracious  and  health- 
ful words.  All  these  were  precepts  of  plain  reason,  the  justice 
of  which  every  heathen  would  acknowledge.  But  the  ground  of 
them  lay  in  that  righteous  constitution  for  man,  which  had  been 
revealed  in  Christ,  and  in  that  Holy  Spirit  with  which  He  had 
sealed  them  against  the  day  when  He  should  redeem  them  and 
claim  them  as  His.  The  Apostle  had  already  spoken  to  the 
Ephesians  of  this  sealing  and  redemption.  The  goods  which 
lay  on  their  quay  in  bond  with  the  owner's  mark  upon  them,  for 
which  he  had  paid  his  earnest-money,  for  which  he  would  cer- 
tainly pay  the  full  price  and  take  them  into  his  own  possession, 


383  LECTURE    II. 

suggested  the  analogy.  It  is  the  nature  of  the  seal  upon  which 
he  dwells  here.  The  Owner's  own  Spirit,  the  Spirit  of  holiness 
and  love,  had  been  bestowed  upon  thein.  This  was  the  earnest- 
money,  this  was  the  sign  to  whom  they  belonged.  Let  them  re- 
member that  it  was  a  Person,  a  loving  Person  who  was  dwelling 
v.'ith  them,  and  that  all  bitterness  and  wrath  and  anger  and  vio- 
lence were  more  grievous  to  Him  than  they  could  be  to  the  most 
tender  and  sensitive  of  friends.  Let  them  remember  that  gen- 
tleness, compassion,  forgiveness,  were  the  qualities  which  He 
was  seeking  to  work  in  them.  For  these  were  what  God  had 
manifested  to  be  His  own  nature  when  in  Christ  He  had  forgiven 
them.  Having  this  Spirit,  this  seal  of  their  adoption,  they  might 
be  imitators  of  God  as  His  own  beloved  children.  They  could 
walk  in  love,  even  as  Christ  loved  them,  who  gave  Himself  for 
them,  a  fragrant  offering  and  sacrifice.  They  might  put  away 
fornication  and  uncleanness  and  covetousness.  They  might  sub- 
stitute thankfulness  for  grovelling  and  foolish  talking.  For 
surely  they  knew  that  the  fornicator,  the  unclean  man,  and  the 
extortioner,  had  no  inheritance  in  the  kingdom  of  Christ  and  of 
God.  These  were  the  habits  of  mind  which  of  necessity  cut 
them  off  from  the  divine  fellowship.  Whatever  foolish  persons 
might  tell  them,  this  was  the  misery  they  had  escaped,  this  was 
the  wrath  of  God  which  was  resting  on  the  children  of  disobe- 
dience. To  be  brought  out  of  these  was  their  blessedness  and 
their  salvation.  Let  them  not  then  claim  fellowship  with  these. 
They  knew  what  it  was  to  be  in  that  darkness  of  which  he  had 
spoken.  Light  was  now  shining  about  them,  the  light  which 
was  in  the  Lord.  Oh  let  them  walk  as  children  of  the  light. 
Light  is  fruitful ;  fruitful  in  goodness,  righteousness,  truth.  Let 
them  discern  and  test  by  it,  what  is  acceptable  to  the  Lord. 
Darkness  is  unfruitful.  Let  them  have  no  fellowship  with  its 
works,  let  them  rather  lay  them  bare  and  bring  them  to  the  light. 
The  acts  which  court  secrecy  it  is  shameful  even  to  speak  of. 
But  all  things  are  proved  and  manifested  by  the  light ;  manifes- 
tation is  the  very  sign  and  characteristic  of  light.  And  that 
light  is  about  the  dullest  sleeper,  and  a  voice  is  ever  speaking  to 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    EPHESIANS.  383 

him  saying,  "Awake,  and  arise  out  of  the  habitations  of  the 
dead,  and  the  Christ  will  illuminate  thee."  Therefore  if  there  is 
this  darkness  and  this  light  about  you,  walk  carefully,  not  as 
fools,  who  know  not  whither  they  are  going,  but  as  wise  men 
seize  each  opportunity,  rescue  it  from  the  evil  days.  Keep  your 
understandings  free  to  understand  what  the  will  of  the  Lord  is, 
not  yielding  to  sottishness,  but  being  filled  with  the  Spirit,  keep- 
ing up  merry  musical  hearts,  singing  and  making  melody  to  the 
Lord  within,  being  musical  also  in  your  intercourse  with  each 
other,  keeping  up  a  tone  of  thankfulness  for  all  things  to  God, 
in  the  Name  of  Him  in  whom  He  is  reconciled  to  us,  submitting 
yourselves  also  one  to  another  in  His  Name  who  came  to  be  the 
servant  of  all. 

On  this  same  ground  he  rests  all  human  relationships.  Wives 
must  be  submissive  to  their  own  husbands  as  to  the  Lord,  be- 
cause the  man  is  the  head  of  the  wife,  even  as  Christ  is  the  Head 
of  the  Church.  The  high  and  universal  order  is  manifested  in 
the  individual  order  ;  the  subjection  of  the  Church  to  Christ  in- 
volves the  subjection  of  the  wives  to  the  husbands.  But  as  He 
being  the  Head,  is  the  Saviour  of  the  whole  body,  as  He  loved 
the  Church  and  gave  Himself  for  it,  in  order  that  having  cleansed 
it  He  might  sanctify  it,  in  order  that  He  might  present  it  to  Him- 
self a  glorious  Church  ;  so  the  love  of  the  husband  should  go 
forth  towards  his  wife  with  a  like  purifying  and  elevating  influ- 
ence. He  should  feel  her  part  of  himself,  should  love  her  and 
cherish  her  as  his  own  body,  even  as  Christ  loves  the  Church 
because  we  are  members  of  His  body.  Here  is  the  ground  for 
that  original  precept,  that  a  man  shall  leave  his  father  and  mother 
and  cleave  to  his  wife,  and  that  they  Should  be  one  flesh.  The 
mystery  no  doubt  is  a  very  great  and  deep  one.  It  is  that  very 
mystery  of  Christ's  relationship  to  humanity  which  he  had  been 
speaking  of  before,  which  the  former  ages  had  not  known,  which 
was  now  made  manifest.  But  each  husband  and  wife  might 
enter  more  and  more  into  this  mystery  by  carrying  it  out  in  their 
love  and  reverence  to  each  other. 

All  other  relations  have  the  same  foundation.     The  fifth  com- 


384  LECTURE    II. 

manclment,  with  its  blessing  and  promise  of  endurance  upon  the 
land,  was  not  a  mere  command.  There  was  a  righteousness  at 
the  root  of  it.  And  children  obeying  their  parents,  and  parents 
not  provoking  their  children,  but  bringing  them  up  and  repre- 
senting to  them  in  their  own  acts  the  education  and  discipline  of 
the  Lord,  were  also  entering  into  this  mystery,  carrying  out  the 
meaning  of  this  revelation. 

In  every  case  it  is  a  mutual  relationship  which  is  unfolded. 
The  servant  is  to  be  obedient  to  the  master  in  simplicity  of  heart, 
feeling  higiself  the  servant  of  Christ,  confessing  the  will  of  God, 
certain  that  the  Lord  is  no  respecter  of  persons.  The  masters 
are  to  do  the  same  things  to  them,  to  forbear  threatening,  to  be 
sure  that  they  have  a  Master  in  Heaven,  and  to  be  sure  that  He 
will  not  treat  them  better  than  their  slaves. 

Here  is  the  true  divine  and  human  republic  in  which  all  the 
universality  and  spirituality  of  the  Platonical  republic  is  united 
with  the  reverence  for  relationships  which  Aristotle  perceived  to 
be  at  the  basis  of  every  sound  polity,  but  which  he  could  not  rec- 
oncile with  the  other  condition  of  it.  In  the  God-Man,  in  Him 
in  whom  all  things  were  created,  in  whom  men  were  chosen,  in 
Him  who  was  born  of  the  Virgin  and  was  subject  to  her,  who 
had  brothers  and  friends,  who  loved  Martha  and  her  sister  and 
Lazarus,  St.  Paul  found  the  eternal  centre  round  which  all  the 
different  portions  of  human  society  are  moving  in  their  different 
orbits,  who  keeps  them  from  ever  becoming  discordant  or  from 
disturbing  the  unity  of  the  system. 

Therefore  what  remained  was  that  the  Ephesians  should  be 
strong  in  the  Lord  and  in  the  power  of  His  might.  Their  work 
was  not  to  win  a  position,  but  to  maintain  one  which  had  been 
given  them.  And  that  was  no  holiday  task.  It  was  not  a  battle 
with  flesh  and  blood.  All  the  powers  of  spiritual  evil  were 
gathered  against  them  ;  they  were  assaulting  their  spirits  on  the 
right  and  on  the  left.  They  needed  a  spiritual  armor  to  with- 
stand these  enemies.  They  would  have  to  withstand  in  the  evil 
day,  and  when  they  had  done  all  that  they  could  do,  still  their 
task  was  to  stand.     Let  them  stand  then  on  that  ground  that  had 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    PHILIPPIANS.  385 

been  won  for  them,  girded  with  truth  about  their  loins,  with 
Christ's  truth  for  their  breastplate,  with  Christ's  Gospel  of  peace 
for  the  sandals  to  their  feet,  with  faith  as  a  shield  to  the  whole 
body,  with  the  confidence  of  salvation  for  their  helmet,  with  the 
Spirit's  sword,  the  word  of  God,  to  strike  down  the  enemy.  And 
if  they  wished  to  know  how  they  were  to  wear  this  armor,  how 
they  were  to  exercise  these  weapons  of  defence,  how  each  man 
was  to  fight  at  once  for  himself  and  for  his  neighbor ;  then  let 
them  pray  with  all  prayer  and  supplication  in  the  spirit  ;  ler 
there  be  watchfulness  and  perseverance  in  their  supplication  for 
all  saints,  and  among  them  for  him  who  needed  the  exhortations 
which  he  was  addressing  to  them  for  himself,  who  wanted  so  much 
more  of  spiritual  freedom  and  courage,  because,  as  far  as  his 
body  was  concerned,  he  was  an  ambassador  in  bonds.  But 
bondman  or  freeman,  he  could  wish  to  all  the  brethren  peace  and 
love  with  faith.  It  was  not  a  barren  wish  ;  for  the  peace  and 
the  love  and  the  faith  came  not  from  him,  but  from  the  Father 
and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  And  when  they  loved  that  Lord  in 
sincerit}^,  the  grace  to  which  their  love  was  only  the  response, 
would  come  forth  richly  and  freely  upon  them  all. 


EPISTLE  TO  THE  PHILIPPIANS. 


As  Philippi  was  the  city  in  which  St.  Paul  made  his  first  as- 
sault upon  Europe,  it  must  always  have  a  special  interest  for  the 
v.^estern  reader.  There  is  much  in  the  recollection  that  the 
neighborhood  was  the  scene  for  the  last  struggle  for  the  old  Ro- 
man republic, — that  there  the  great  obstacle  was  removed  to  the 
establishment  of  that  empire  with  which  the  Christian  kingdom 
was  to  measure  its  strength, — which   increases   this  interest.     It 

25 


386  LECTURE    II. 

is  deepened  and  brought  into  direct  connection  with  the  life  of 
the  Apostle  by  the  narrative  in  the  sixteenth  chapter  of  the  Acts. 
All  the  incidents  in  that  chapter  have  much  more  than  a  mere 
sentimental  worth.  They  are  memorable  points  in  church-his- 
tory. The  prayer  by  the  river-side  is  the  only  direct  allusion  to 
Jewish  worship  in  the  narrative,  and  it  suggests  thoughts  of  a 
different  kind  from  those  which  we  derive  from  the  ordinary 
references  to  the  synagogue.  Nothing  in  the  words  determine 
whether  Lydia  was  a  Jew  by  birth,  or  a  proselyte.  But  the 
words,  "  she  worshipped  God,"  are  probably  decisive  that  she 
was  not  a  heathen.  The  damsel  w-ith  the  spirit  of  divination  is 
another  of  those  instances  which  we  meet  with  everywhere,  of 
the  prevalence  of  magic  and  enchantment,  in  all  parts  of  the  Em- 
pire, and  of  the  trading  purposes  to  which  it  was  turned.  The 
grief  of  Paul  at  her  apparent  addiction  to  his  doctrine  is  a  proof 
how  naturally  the  Apostolic  teaching  respecting  the  Spirit  pre- 
sented itself  as  the  characteristically  Christian  teaching,  how 
quickly  the  counterfeit  doctrine  claimed  affinity  with  it,  how  much 
St.  Paul  felt  it  was  his  main  duty  to  e:?chibit  one  as  the  great  con- 
trast to  the  other.  Then  comes  the  interference  of  the  Roman 
magistrates  with  this  teaching  ;  an  interference  caused,  as  it  would 
always  be,  not  by  any  dislike  to  it  for  its  own  sake,  but  from  the 
disposition  which  the  Romans  felt  to  indulge  all  the  superstitions 
of  their  subjects,  and  to  protect  so  recognized  and  popular  a  busi- 
ness as  that  of  the  diviner.  Still  the  complaint  takes  a  Roman 
form.  The  customs  of  the  city  were  invaded.  The  colonists 
who  claimed  Roman  privileges  could  not  endure  the  innovations 
and  interferences  of  Jews.  The  story  of  the  prison  and  the 
earthquake  will  only  be  explained  away  by  those  who  think  that 
the  whole  growth  and  progress  of  the  Church  was  not  super- 
natural, and  that  an  attestation  of  the  divine  presence  with  those 
who  were  speaking  the  truth,  is  a  departure  from  the  order  of 
the  divine  proceedings,  not  a  vindication  of  it.  How  that  out- 
ward manifestation  awakened  the  conscience  of  the  jailor,  how 
the  thought  of  deliverance,  or  salvation,  for  tlie  first  time  dawned 
upon  him,  how  the  Apostles  at  once  spoke  to  him  of  the  Lord  of 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    PHILIPPIANS.  38/ 

his  conscience,  and  the  Deliverer  of  it,  we  have  known  from  our 
childhood,  and  yet  the  words  are  not  the  least  exhausted,  but 
should  be  studied  again  and  again  in  connection  with  the  whole 
apostolical  message.  Nor  ought  we,  by  any  means,  to  forget  the 
Apostle's  vindication  of  his  rights  as  a  Roman  citizen,  and  his 
determination  to  assert  the  law  against  the  temporary  adminis- 
trators of  it.  His  reverence  for  Roman  law,  as  a  part  of  God's 
order  in  the  world,  is  conspicuous  everywhere.  We  shall  mis- 
understand his  character  and  his  work  if  we  do  not  take  account 
of  it. 

Though  these  events  are  very  important  in  themselves,  they 
are  not  as  obviously  connected  with  the  Epistle  to  the  Philip- 
pians  as  the  experiences  of  the  Apostle  in  Ephesus  are  with  the 
Epistle  to  the  Church  in  that  city.  It  would  seem  as  if  the 
Philippians  had  been  more  staggered  by  the  Apostle's  imprison- 
ment and  the  probable  death  that  was  awaiting  him,  than  by  any 
events  which  had  happened,  or  were  happening,  in  their  own 
neighborhood.  Various  thoughts  would  have  been  suggested  to 
them  by  his  tribulation,  thoughts  that  might  have  unsettled  the 
minds  of  men  much  longer  established  in  the  faith  than  they 
were.  Their  shepherd  was  stricken  ;  he  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
Emperor  ;  but  his  own  countrymen  had  been  the  cause  of  his 
betaking  himself  to  Rome.  He  was  apparently  silenced  by  God's 
own  decree.  Many  members  of  the  Church,  who  were  Jews,  de- 
nounced him,  denied  that  he  was  a  true  preacher  of  Christ,  af- 
firmed that  he  believed  another  doctrine  from  that  of  the  older 
Apostles.  Such  words,  reaching  to  the  chamber  where  the  sol- 
dier watched  him,  were  heard  also  in  every  Church  which  he 
had  founded,  and  must  have  been  repeated  by  the  Judaizers  in 
Macedonia.  One  knows  a  little  how  such  hints  affect  the  minds 
of  people  living  in  quietness  ;.of  what  tumults,  of  what  infidelity, 
they  are  the  parents.  Suppose  them  coming  to  converts  who 
were  suffering  themselves  from  Jewish  and  Gentile  adversaries, 
who  had  among  them  (strange  as  it  may  seem  to  those  who 
think  the  early  Church  must  have  been  pure  because  it  was 
persecuted)  careless  inconsistent  livers  ;    and  we  appear  to  have 


388  LECTURE    II. 

most  of  the  circumstances  to  which  St.  Paul  refers  in  this 
letter. 

Disunion  was  the  peril  of  the  Philippians  as  it  was  of  the 
Corinthians ;  but  a  disunion  arising  less,  it  would  appear,  from 
intellectual  causes  and  the  spirit  of  faction,  than  from  despon- 
dency. Against  that  tendency  the  whole  letter  seems  to  be 
directed.  It  is  a  perpetual  summons  to  trust  and  hope  and  joy, 
which  tribulations  need  not  damp,  to  which  they  might  be  the 
most  effectual  ministers.  It  is  evidently  a  leading  maxim  of  the 
Apostle,  which  comes  forth  in  every  epistle,  that  trust  and  hope 
and  joy  are  not  solitary  feelings,  that  they  belong  to  a  community, 
that  they  are  nourished  by  mutual  intercourse,  that  they  are  sus- 
tained by  a  common  Spirit,  that  they  have  no  meaning  if  they 
do  not  point  to  a  common  object.  The  specially  eucharistical 
character  of  this  epistle  which  goes  through  it  from  the  begin- 
ning to  the  end,  is  always  connected  with  exhortations  to  fellow- 
ship, to  oneness  of  spirit  and  soul,  to  common  work,  to  common 
sympathy.  And  these  are  not  mere  exhortations  to  do  what  is 
right  and  avoid  what  is  wrong  :  they  are  grounded  upon  the  fact, 
that  they  are  united  to  each  other,  united  to  the  Apostle  himself, 
however  far  he  may  be  away  from  them,  in  a  bond  which  nothing 
can  break,  one  which  he  is  as  able  to  realize  in  his  prayers  and 
thanksgivings  while  he  is  imprisoned  at  Rome,  as  if  he  were  with 
them  at  Philippi.  What  better  thing  can  he  give  thanks  for  than 
that  they  are  brought  into  the  same  fellowship  with  him  ?  What 
better  thing  can  he  ask  fof  them  than  that  they  may  enter  into 
the  full  meaning  of  this  fellowship  ?  All  other  blessings  are  in- 
cluded in  that  ;  clearness  of  mind,  freedom  from  causes  of  of- 
fence and  from  giving  offence,  the  walking  in  Christ's  clear 
light,  the  expectation  of  his  perfect  day. 

Why  should  the  Apostle's  imprisonment  discourage  them  }  It 
is  the  means  of  making  his  gospel  known  in  the  very  palace  of 
the  Caesars.  Why  should  the  different  opinions  about  him  dis- 
courage them  ?  Christ's  name  was  heard,  even  from  those  who 
most  disliked  his  imprisoned  servant,  who  would  have  been  most 
willing  to  add  affliction  to  his  bonds.     Was  not  that  a  reason  for 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    PHILIPPIANS.  389 

rejoicing  to  him  and  to  them  ?  VVliy  were  they  to  be  cast  down 
because  his  death  might  be  at  hand  ?  To  him  to  Hve  here  in  the 
flesh  was  to  draw  life  from  Christ,  to  die  was  to  have  the  gain  of 
a  fuller,  richer  life.  He  could  not  tell  which  was  the  best.  But 
he  did  not  doubt  that  that  would  be  granted  to  him  which  was 
most  profitable  for  them.  He  had  little  doubt  that  he  should  see 
them  again  face  to  face. 

But  what  if  he  did  not  ?  Let  them  live  as  fellow-heirs  of  the 
inheritance  which  the  Gospel  told  them  of  ;  let  them  stand  fast 
in  one  spirit ;  let  thenf  struggle  with  one  soul  for  the  faith  of  the 
Gospel  ;  being  in  nothing  shaken  by  their  adversaries  ;  (their 
peace — a  peace  all  the  sweeter  and  more  honorable  because  they 
were  permitted  not  only  to  believe  in  Christ  but  to  suffer  for  Him 
— would  be  the  witness  of  the  deliverance  which  God  had  wrought 
for  them,  and  would  contrast  with  the  miserable  condition  of 
those  who  could  never  be  at  peace,  who  could  only  cast  up  mire 
and  dirt,)  and  then  they  would  be  one  with  the  Apostle,  near  or 
at  a  distance,  fighting  the  battle  which  he  was  fighting.  But 
whence  was  this  unity  to  come?  How  could  they,  a  set  of  men 
with  so  many  individual  temperaments,  so  many  diverse  interests, 
have  in  very  deed  that  one  mind  which  he  had  demanded  of 
them  ?  That  one  mind  was  given  them.'  They  were  members 
of  Christ,  that  is  to  say,  of  Him  who  being  in  the  form  of  God, 
did  not  eagerly  grasp  at  equality  with  God,  but  emptied  Himself 
and  became  of  no  reputation,  and  having  taken  upon  Him  the 
form  of  a  servant,  and  having  become  in  the  likeness  of  men,  and 
having  been  found  in  fashion  as  a  man,  still  further  humbled 
Himself,  having  become  obedient  unto  death,  yea  the  death  of 
the  cross.  And  it  was  this  humbled,  crucified  Man  whom  God 
had  highly  exalted,  whose  name  was  above  every  name,  that 
in  the  Name  of  Jesus  every  knee  should  bow,  of  things  heavenly 
and  earthly  and  subterranean,  and  every  tongue  should  confess 
that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father. 

Here  we  find  the  central  doctrine  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Philip- 
pians,  as  it  is  of  all  the  other  epistles.  It  is  presented  in  the 
form   and  aspect  most  suited  to  their  necessities.      But  it  is  the 


390  LECTURE    II. 

same  truth  of  the  humble  Jesus  and  the  exalted  Christ, — of  the 
Son  who  is  one  with  the  Father,  and  makes  himself  so  one  with 
man  that  His  mind  is  shown  to  be  the  very  mind  which  belongs 
to  man, — the  only  mind  which  can  make  us  humble,  the  only 
mind  which  can  keep  us  at  one,  the  only  mind  which  can  make 
us  sharers  of  His  glory  who  has  created  us  to  know  Him  and  be 
like  Him.  On  this  ground  St.  Paul  bases  all  his  after  exhorta- 
tions. He  asks  for  obedience,  for  an  obedience  which  did  not 
depend  on  his  presence  or  absence.  He  asks  them  to  work  out 
their  salvation,  salvation  from  all  those  strifes  and  divisions 
which  were  keeping  them  apart  from  Christ  and  each  other,  with 
the  fear  and  trembling  of  men  who  know  that  God  Himself  is 
working  in  them  both  the  will  and  the  energetic  action  for  His 
good  pleasure.  On  this  ground  he  can  bid  them  do  all  things 
without  murmurings  and  disputings.  He  can  bid  them  be  the 
blameless  children  of  God  in  the  midst  of  a  crooked  and  dis- 
torted generation,  among  whom  they  might  shine  as  world-lights, 
holding  up  the  word  of  life  to  those  who  were  most  sunk  in  death; 
so  proving  that  the  Apostle  had  not  run  in  vain  or  labored  in 
vain,  but  had  sent  forth  those  who  could  hand  on  the  torch  when 
he  ceased  to  run  and  to  labor.  Even  if  he  were  poured  out  as 
an  offering  for  their  sakes,  he  could  joy  and  rejoice  with  them. 
Why  should  not  they  joy  and  rejoice  with  him  ? 

Here,  as  everywhere,  the  personal  mixes  with  the  general  and 
the  universal.  No  sense  of  the  spiritual  fellowship  and  unity 
which  he  has  with  the  Pjiilippians  in  the  spirit,  leads  him  to  for- 
get his  and  their  friends,  Timothy  and  Epaphroditus,  through 
whom  he  had  communicated  with  them,  who  felt  for  them  and 
suffered  with  them  as  he  did.  It  is  needless  to  remark,  for  one 
epistle  proves  it  just  as  much  as  another,  how  all  individual 
griefs,  sicknesses,  losses  of  estate  or  reputation,  mingle  in  the 
Apostle's  most  elevated  discourses,  and  do  not  lower  them  in  the 
least.  Here  they  come  in  with  wonderful  appropriateness  as  ex- 
hibiting the  mind  of  Him  who  was  the  sufferer  with  each,  who  is 
exalted  to  be  the  Lord  of  all. 

But  the  allusion  to  St.  Paul's   sorrow  for   the   sickness  of  his 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    PHILIPPIANS.  39I 

friend,  immediately  gives  way  to  tlie  burden  of  tlie  wliole  letter, 
"  Rejoice  in  the  Lord."  He  has  said  it  often  to  them  ;  he  must 
say  it  again.  For  there  are  dogs,  evil-workers,  counterfeit  sup- 
porters of  circumcision,  who  were  hindering  them  from  this  joy. 
The  true  circumcision  meant  that  they  were  to  cut  off  the  flesh, 
that  their  spirits  might  rise  up  and  be  renewed  to  life  and  free- 
dom and  joy  in  Christ.  Paul  had  as  many  fleshly  privileges  as 
any  man  could  have — all  outward  distinctions  that  severed  him 
from  his  kind  and  gave  him  a  right  to  boast  of  his  national  elec- 
tion. But  he  had  counted  all  these  loss  and  dung  for  the  sake 
of  Christ.  For  the  righteousness  which  was  in  Him,  the  right- 
eousness which  comes  upon  faith,  to  which  a  man  rises  through 
faith,  the  righteousness  which  is  of  God  Himself,  he  had  cast 
away  all  that  righteousness  which  is  merely  subjection  and  con- 
formity to  the  law.  He  aspired  to  know  Christ  Himself,  the 
power  of  His  resurrection,  the  fellowship  of  His  sufferings.  He 
was  formed  in  the  image  of  His  death  ;  he  longed  to  attain  the 
image  of  the  resurrection.  He  had  not  attained  it,  he  was  always 
pressing  after  it.  Forgetting  the  things  that  were  behind,  he  was 
always  reaching  upwards,  desirous  to  lose  himself,  to  be  found  in 
Christ,  to  attain  the  mark  of  the  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ. 
This  was  the  highest  object  which  ihe  most  perfect  or  initiated 
man  could  propose  to  himself.  And  yet  it  was  the  common  ob- 
ject for  the  whole  Church.  All  might  have  this  mind.  And  if 
any  felt  that  they  were  otherwise  minded,  they  might  trust  God 
to  reveal  it  to  them. 

He  had  told  them  what  he  was  striving  after.  Let  them  strive 
for  the  same  object.  Let  them  think  what  he  and  those  who 
most  felt  with  him  were  desiring  and  aiming  at.  He  knew  sadly 
that  there  were  others  who  had  other  aims, — low,  grovelling, 
earthly  aims,  and  who  would  too  surely  attain  what  they  sought, 
the  perdition  of  their  moral  being.  But  oh,  let  them  remember 
that  their  citizenship  was  in  the  heavens,  that  Christ  the  Deliverer 
is  there  ;  that  instead  of  subjecting  our  spirits  to  our  bodies,  we 
are  to  wait  till  He  transforms  the  body  of  our  humiliation  into 
the  likeness  of  the  body  of  His  glory,  by  that  power  whereby  He 
is  able  to  subdue  even  all  things  unto  Himself. 


392  LECTURE    II. 

Again  and  again  the  Apostle  turns  to  individual  cases  and  cir- 
cumstances, gently  alluding  to  any  troubles  or  jealousies  or  divis- 
ions of  which  he  had  heard,  while  he  brings  the  law  which  he 
has  been  working  out  to  bear  upon  them.  But  as  the  great  ob- 
ject of  the  Epistle  is  encouragement,  the  removal  of  despondency, 
he  seizes  the  occasion  to  tell  the  Philippians  what  delight  they 
had  given  him  by  the  love-tokens  which  they  had  sent  him  again 
and  again  ;  the  offerings  which  they  had  made,  that  were  so  ac- 
ceptable to  him  because  he  was  sure  they  were  acceptable  to 
God.  He  shows  them  how  all  things  that  were  kind  and  gentle 
and  venerable  and  lovely,  whether  they  were  exhibited  imper- 
fectly by  weak  human  beings,  or  fully,  in  the  acts  and  manifesta- 
tions of  God,  were  dear  to  him,  were  the  occupation  of  his 
thoughts,  the  food  of  his  spirit.  He  would  have  them  think  on 
these  things.  And  then  the  main  exhortation  of  the  Epistle 
would  be  obeyed  ;  they  would  rejoice  in  the  Lord.  And  the 
blessed  effect  of  their  inward  joy  would  appear  to  all  men  in 
their  evenness  and  moderation.  They  would  feel  that  the  Lord 
was  near  them.  They  would  have  no  vexing  cares.  In  prayer 
and  supplication,  never  separated  from  thanksgiving,  their  re- 
quests would  be  made  known  to  God.  And  the  peace  of  God 
which  surpasses  all  our  reason  would  guard  their  hearts  and  their 
thoughts  in  Christ  Jesus. 


EPISTLE  TO  THE  COLOSSIANS. 


The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  give  us  no  help  in  understanding 
the  condition  of  the  Church  at  Colosse.  As  St.  Paul  says  that 
he  had  never  seen  the  Christians  there  or  in  Laodicea,  it  was  not 
likely  that  St.  Luke  would  speak  to  us  of  either.     All  our  infor- 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    COLOSSIANS.  393 

mation  must  be  obtained  from  the  Epistle  itself.  It  raises  a 
question  which  has  been  much  discussed  in  the  last  few  years, 
and  which  is  connected  with  the  theory  of  Bauer  respecting  the 
Pauline  epistles. 

As  our  countryman  Hammond  discovered  Gnosticism  every- 
where in  the  first  age  of  the  Church,  and  supposed  that  the 
Apostolical  Epistles  were  mainly  written  to  expose  the  dangers 
of  it,  so  modern  schools  have  been  inclined  to  deny  that  there 
are  any  traces  of  it  before  the  second  century,  and  therefore  to 
dispute  the  genuineness  of  the  epistles  which  apparently  allude 
to  it.  There  is,  of  course,  the  other  alternative  of  explaining 
away  all  such  allusions  as  suggested  by  the  fancy  of  a  particular 
commentator.  In  very  many  cases  this  course  is  an  easy  one. 
Hammond  undoubtedly  strained  a  number  of  passages  into  consent 
with  his  theory.  But  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians  contains  hints 
which  cannot  be  got  rid  of.  Any  one  acquainted  with  the  phe- 
nomena of  Gnosticism  in  the  second  century,  would  naturally, 
almost  inevitably,  conclude  that  the  Apostle  must  be  pointing  at 
some  of  its  doctrines  and  habits.  And  the  sentences  which  con- 
tain these  allusions  cannot  have  slipped  into  the  Epistle.  They 
are  part  of  its  very  substance.  Exclude  them,  and  the  object  of 
it  becomes  scarcely  intelligible. 

But  does  it  follow  from  this  admission,  that  the  writer  of  this 
Episde  was  acquainted  with  Valentinians  or  Carpocratians,  that 
he  makes  any,  even  the  slightest,  allusion  to  the  different  forms 
which  the  Gnostical  doctrine  assumed  when  persons  arose  who 
resolutely  and  systematically  sought  to  combine  the  Gospel  with 
the  doctrines  of  the  Magians,  or  of  the  Alexandrian  sages  ?  I 
do  not  think  that  it  is  possible  to  detect  any  such  allusion.  If 
one  reads  the  Epistle  simply,  the  inference  from  it  would  be  ; 
"no  great  schemes  concerning  divine  emanations  have  as  yet 
been  directly  blended  with  the  lessons  of  the  Apostles,  though 
there  is  as  clearly  the  possibility  of  all  such  schemes,  though  the 
seeds  of  a  hundred  heresies  have  been  deposited  in  the  soil,  and 
the  produce  of  them  is  beginning  to  show  itself  above  ground." 
If  we  admit  this  to  be  the  case — and  I  only  wish  the  reader  to 


394  LECTURE   ir. 

admit  it  if  the  evidence  of  tlie  Epistle  itself  seems  to  be  in  favor 
of  the  opinion — we  can  do  justice  to  both  Hammond  and  Bauer, 
and  to  another  class  of  commentators  different  from  either,  who, 
like  our  Bishop  Davenant,  have  sought  and  found  in  this  Epistle 
the  confutation  of  different  Romish  errors  of  doctrine  and  prac- 
tice. Those  who  endeavor  to  apply  the  Apostle's  teaching  to  his 
own  times,  are  on  the  whole,  I  think,  the  safer,  though  they  may 
be  the  drier  guides.  Yet  it  is  impossible  not  to  recognize  a  fresh- 
ness and  vitality  in  the  others  which  seem  to  prove  them  right 
even  when  history  would  lead  us  to  think  them  wrong.  We  only 
begin  to  distrust  their  suggestions  when  we  find  that  they  tie  the 
words  of  Scripture  to  a  particular  case,  and  hinder  us  from  ap- 
plying it  to  other  cases  in  which  we  are,  in  our  own  day,  perhaps 
more  profoundly  interested.  By  fairly  taking  the  Epistle  to  mean 
what  it  says — not  reading  into  it  the  information  which  we  derive 
from  later  sources,  and  yet  profiting  by  all  the  experience  we 
possess  in  judging  of  the  habits  and  tendencies  which  are  likely 
to  appear  in  persons  and  societies,  and  to  be  called  forth  by 
similar  circumstances, — we  may,  I  suspect,  discover  in  the  Church 
at  Colosse,  modes  of  thinking  and  acting  which  will  help  us  to 
understand  the  conditions  of  the  Church  in  the  second  century, 
as  well  as  in  the  middle  ages,  and  yet  which  may,  in  some  re- 
spects, have  a  more  remarkable  bearing  upon  our  own  time  than 
either  upon  the  one  or  the  other.  Above  all,  1  think  we  shall  be 
convinced  of  the  thoroughly  genuine  and  Pauline  character  of 
the  Epistle  ;  of  its  perfect  harmony  with  those  which  we  have 
considered  already  ;  of  its  possessing  those  distinct  and  local 
signs  which  we  have  never  yet  found  wanting  in  any  of  the  apos- 
tolical letters,  and  the  absence  of  which  would  almost  as  much 
oblige  us  to  reject  it  as  the  most  flagrant  contradictions  of  other 
parts  of  the  New  Testament. 

The  sophist  must  certainly  have  been  a  very  skilful  man  who 
could  contrive  to  throw  into  his  imitation  of  St.  Paul, — not  his 
forms  of  speech,  not  the  introductions  to  his  letters,  not  allusions 
to  this  or  that  person, — but  the  very  mind  and  heart  of  the  Apos- 
tle, his  passionate   vehemence,  the   involutions   of  his   periods, 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    COLOSSIANS.  395 

proceeding   from    the    multitude    and  variety  of   his   thoughts, 
along  with  an  order  and  coherency  which  makes  itself  manifest, 
not  in  spite  of  that  involution,  but  by  means  of  it.     His  ingenu- 
ity is  still  more  remarkable,  because  he  does  not  take  the  outside 
of  the  Apostle's  mind  and  writings  as  the  subject  for  his  copy. 
He  does  not  introduce  phrases  about  justification,  by  which  sys- 
tematizers  in  that  day,  or  later  days,  would  have  identified  St. 
Paul,  and  convinced  themselves  that  the  document  which  con- 
tained them  could  have  come  from  no  other  hand.     But  he  at 
once  seizes,  with  an  intuition  which  does  not  usually  belong  to 
a  thoroughly  dishonest  man,  or  to  one  who  is  interpolating  for  a 
purpose,  that  which  we  have  discovered  to  be  the  very  charac- 
teristic principle  of  the  Apostle  in  all  his  letters,  that  which  he 
enunciates  in  the  letter  to  the  Galatians,  as  the  explanation  of 
his  conversion  and  of  his  mission  to  the  Gentiles.     "  It  pleased 
God  to  reveal  His  Son  in  me  that  I  might  preach   Him  among 
the  Gentiles  :  "  these  words  have  been  the  key-note  to  his  other 
epistles.     There  is  none,  to  the  different  parts  of  which  they  give 
more   sense   and  unity  than  to   that  which  we   are  now  consid- 
ering. 

The  passages  down  to  the  fourteenth  verse  of  the  first  chapter 
remind  us  of ''the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians.     The  tone  of  thought 
and  language  is  so  like  that  a  careless  reader  might  easily  sup- 
pose that  he  was  merely  about  to  hear  a  repetition  of  the  lessons 
which  he  had  been  learning  there.     But  if  he  reads  the  passage 
ao-ain   he  will  perceive  omissions  in  it  which  will  at  once  con- 
vtnce'  him   that    the   object   is   different.     There    are   the   same 
thanksgivings  to  God  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  for 
faith  and  love  of  the  infant  Church,  for  the  hope  that  is  laid  up 
for  them  in  the  heavens  ;  the  same  acknowledgment  of  the  fruit- 
ful and  life-giving  power  which  dwells  in  the  word  of  the  truth 
'of  the  Gospel,  the  power  which  had  proved  its  reality  in  others 
and  in  them  ;  the  same  prayer  for  them,  that  they  might  be  filled 
with  the  knowledge  of  God's  will  in  all  wisdom  and  spiritual  un- 
derstanding, that  they  might  bring  forth  the  fruit  of  good  works, 
that  they  might  grow  in  the  knowledge  of  God,  that  they  might 


39^  LECTURE    II. 

have  inward  might  for  endurance  and  long-suffering,  that  they 
might  give  thanks  to  the  Father,  who  had  called  them  and  fitted 
them  for  the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light,  who  had  delivered 
them  out  of  the  power  of  darkness,  and  translated  them  into  the 
kingdom  of  the  Son  of  his  love,  in  whom  they  had  their  redemp- 
tion, the  forgiveness  of  sins.  But  that  which  constituted  the  pe- 
culiarity of  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  its  beginning  from  the 
blessings  which  God  had  bestowed  on  them  in  Christ  before  the 
foundation  of  the  world,  is  not  to  be  met  with  here.  And,  as 
that  commencement  gave  the  character  and  tone  to  the  whole 
epistle,  we  should  commit  the  greatest  possible  mistake  if  we 
confounded  this  with  it,  because  there  were  thoughts  in  the 
Apostle's  mind  which  belonged  as  much  to  the  condition  of  one 
Church  as  of  the  other. 

The  passage  which  follows  brings  us,  I  think,  into  the  heart  of 
this  epistle,  to  the  very  subject  of  it,  "  Who  is  the  image  of  the 
God,  the  unseen  God  :  First-born  of  all  creation.  Because  in 
Him  were  created  all  things  in  the  heavens  and  upon  the 
earth  ;  the  things  seen  and  the  things  unseen,  whether  thrones, 
or  lordships,  or  principalities,  or  powers  ;  all  things  through 
Him  and  with  a  view  to  him  were  created.  And  He  is  before 
all,  and  all  things  in  Him  consist.  And  He  is  the  head  of  the 
body,  the  original,  first-begotten  out  of  the  dead,  that  He  might 
become  in  all  things  Himself  the  first  (or  forerunner).  Because 
in  Him  all  the  fulness  was  pleased  to  dwell,  and  through  Him 
to  reconcile  all  things  unto  Him,  having  made  peace  through 
the  blood  of  His  cross.  And  you,  being  heretofore  alienated 
and  enemies  in  mind  by  evil  works,  yet  now  hath  He  reconciled 
in  the  body  of  His  flesh  through  death,  to  present  you  holy 
and  blameless  and  unreproved,  if  at  least  ye  remain  in  the  faith 
grounded  and  settled,  and  are  not  moved  away  from  the  hope 
of  the  GcJspel  which  ye  have  heard,  that  which  has  been 
preached  in  all  the  creation  which  is  under  the  heaven,  of 
which  I  Paul  have  become  the  minister." 

This  passage  arises  most  naturally  out  of  that  which  has  pre- 
ceded it.     There  is   no   break   in   the   sense.     The   first  clause 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    COLOSSTANS.  397 

which  I  have  quoted  belongs  to  a  previous  sentence.  And  if  we 
attend  to  the  phraseology  we  shall  perceive  that  all  has  been 
moving  onward  to  this  declaration  of  Christ  as  the  image  of  God, 
the  ground  and  pattern  of  the  visible  and  invisible  creation,  the 
Hea'd  of  all  powers  and  governments  in  the  unseen  world,  the 
pattern  in  death  as  well  as  in  life,  the  beginning  of  the  old  crea- 
tion and  the  new,  the  Head  of  the  Church  ;  its  Head,  because 
the  whole  Divine  fulness  was  actually  gathered  up  in  Him  ;  its 
Head,  because  He  has  brought  about  an  actual  re-union  and 
reconciliation  of  the  torn  fragments  of  humanity  in  Himself,  and 
has  enabled  all  particular  men— such  as  the  Colossians  who  had 
been  severed  from  God  by  the  evil  which  was  in  them— to  re- 
sume their  own  proper  place  in  God's  order  and  universe. 

But  why  does  he  dwell  so  emphatically  upon  the  unseen  God, 
and  upon   the  things  seen  and  unseen  ?     Why  is  there   such  an 
accumulation  of  phrases  to  denote  spiritual  or  angelical  powers  ? 
Why  does    he   so  laboriously  connect    earth  with  heaven,   the 
Church  on  earth,  the  local  Church  of   the  Colossians,  the  very 
men  to  whom  he  is  writing,  with   the    divine  Cosmos,  which  in- 
cludes so  much   more  than  the  cosmos  which  physical   science 
treats  of  ?     Why,  but  because  there  had  arisen  in  the  minds  of 
the  members  of  this  particular  Church  questionings  about  the 
relation  of  the  seen  to  the  unseen,  doubts  whether  the  invisible 
God  might  not  be  manifesting  Himself  through  a  number  of  dif- 
ferent subordinate  agencies  and  ministries  to  jiian,  doubts  whether 
there  was  any  one  Person  to  whom  they  were  all   subjected,  any 
one  in  whom  God  had  fully  revealed  Himself,  any  one  in  whom 
man  could  meet  Him  and  claim  fellowship  with  him,  any  one  in 
whom  the  different  cycles  of  the  world's   history,  as  well  as  the 
different  orders  of  creation,  could  really  find  their  common  end 
and  interpretation,  to  whom  they  could  all  be  referred.     It  was 
the  very  Gospel  of  which  Paul  had  been  made  the  minister,  that 
such  a  person,  such  a  centre,  such  a  reconciler,  had  been  revealed. 
It  was  the  most  natural  of  all   doubts  to   ask  whether  this  news 
could  be  true,  the  most  comprehensive  of  all  denials  to  say  that 
it  was  false.     All  idolatry,  just  so  far  as  it  was  idolatry,— j^st  so 


398  LECTURE    II. 

far  as  it  was  the  assertion  of  a  multitude  of  centres,  not  of  one 
great  divine  and  human  centre, — was  contending  with  this  belief. 
Each  particular  form  of  that  idolatry  was  the  resisting  power  in 
some  particular  direction  to  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  because 
it  was  that  which  kept  a  certain  set  of  men,  with  certain  tradi- 
tions, apart  from  other  men.  Judaism  in  like  manner,  when  it 
set  itself  up  as  an  exclusive  religion,  was  of  course  at  war  with 
St.  Paul's  assertion.  It  put  itself  upon  the  Ethnic  ground,  while 
h2  maintained  that  the  Jew  was  called  to  be  a  blessing  to  all  the 
families  of  the  earth.  But  was  it  not  quite  certain  that  as  other 
tendencies  of  Heathenism  and  Judaism  re-appeared  in  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  and  received  a  new  character  and  impression  from 
its  doctrine,  this,  which  was  the  characteristic  and  common  de- 
nial of  both,  would  in  some  form  or  other  re-appear  also  ?,  What 
the  forms  would  be,  a  wise  man  might  possibly  guess,  but  could 
not  predict.  He  would  be  nearly  sure  that  the  old  idolatries 
must  come  forth  in  a  more  spiritualized  character,  that  vulgar 
sensual  forms  would  be  translated  into  abstract  forms  and  es- 
sences,  that  a  number  of  half-gods  and  secondary  principles 
would  be  interposed  between  the  creature  and  the  Creator.  He 
might  have  been  convinced  that  Jews  and  Gentiles  would  each 
contribute  their  aid  in  framing  a  new  daemonology,  that  the  ma- 
terial and  the  spiritual  would  be  curiously  and  strangely  com- 
bined in  it,  that  the  different  dogmas  of  Heathen  mythology  and 
philosophy  would  assert  their  predominance  in  the  Churches  of 
the  lands  with  which  they  had  had  in  past  times  most  affinity. 
But  with  these  and  a  multitude  of  more  remote  combinations  and 
results,  the  teacher  of  the  first  age  had  no  need  directly  to  med- 
dle. He  did  a  much  mightier  service  to  the  world  if  he  pointed 
out  the  root  of  these  tendencies,  the  mode  in  which  they  would 
try  to  fashion  the  new  revelation  into  their  likeness,  and  make  it 
testify  in  their  favor — above  all,  the  only  cure  for  them. 

This  cure  lies  first  in  that  full  declaration  of  Christ  as  the  one 
centre  of  humanity,  and  the  one  manifestation  of  God  which  we 
have  heard  already,  a  Gospel  not  to  be  argued  for  or  proved  other- 
wise than  as  it  proved  itself  by  meeting  and  reconciling  those  par- 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    COLOSSIANS.  399 

tial  theories  which  were  set  up  in  opposition  to  it,  as  well  as  those 
intuitions  and  anticipations  of  the  human  spirit  to  each  of  which 
one  of  these  theories  had  corresponded.  Secondly,  it  consisted 
in  the  special  application  of  this  Gospel  to  the  inferences  which 
doctors  or  disciples  had  drawn  from  these  theories,  and  to  the 
practices  which  they  had  founded  upon  them  ;  in  showing  that 
it  accomplished  what  they  were  awkwardly  and  unsatisfactorily 
attempting. 

One  of  the  first  inferences  from  the  belief  that  wonderful  mys- 
teries concerning  the  invisible  world  had  been  discovered  to  men 
by  Christ's  appearance  among  them,  when  it  was  not  accom- 
panied with  that  full  belief  respecting  His  person  and  His  rec- 
onciliation to  which  the  Apostle  urged  them,  was  that  they  had 
something  to  do  in  order  to  complete  that  which  He  had  left  un- 
done. He  had  gone  through  great  tribulations  and  sufferings 
for  the  world,  no  doubt.  They  must  go  through  tribulations  and 
sufferings  in  order  that  they  might  attain  the  spiritual  blessings, 
that  they  might  be  inheritors  of  the  spiritual  kingdom,  which  He 
had  prepared  for  them.  We  need  not  stop  to  speak  of  the  differ- 
ent perplexities  which  this  opinion  has  caused  in  different  ages 
of  the  Church.  The  student  of  ecclesiastical  history  finds  them 
re-appearing  at  every  step.  But  was  there  no  truth  in  this  doc- 
trine which  needed  to  be  disengaged  from  some  of  its  perilous 
adjuncts  ?  Had  not  St.  Paul  said,  that  through  much  tribulation 
we  must  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God  ?  What  was  the  mean- 
ing of  the  sufferings  which  he  was  himself  called  to  undergo  ? 
He  meets  the  question  at  once :  "  I  rejoice  in  my  sufferings  for 
you,  and  I  am  filling  up  that  which  was  lacking  in  the  tribula- 
tions of  Christ  in  my  flesh  for  His  body,  which  is  the  Church." 
Every  one  feels  what  bold  language  this  is  ;  how  easily  it  may  be 
quoted  for  the  support  of  some  of  the  greatest  and  most  dan- 
gerous superstitions  ;  in  denial  of  Christ's  finished  sacrifice. 
But  if  the  great  object  of  the  Apostle  in  the  epistle  where  these 
words  occur,  is  to  declare  the  completeness  and  all-sufffciency  of 
Christ  against  those  who  were  setting  Him  aside  and  trying  to 
bring  in  certain  acts  or  exercises  of  their  own,  as  a  means  of  at- 


400  LECTURE    II. 

taining  heights  of  knowledge  or  excellence  to  which  He  had  not 
brought  them,  we  have  a  right  to  assume  that  these  words,  like 
all  which  accompany  them,  are  used  for  the  correction  of  that 
error.  And  they  do  I  conceive  correct  it  most  effectually  and  in 
the  most  practical  manner.  For  if  we  suppose  the  Apostle  to 
mean  by  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  those  which  He  endured  upon 
the  cross, — even,  I  say,  if  this  should  be  the  meaning  (though  it 
certainly  does  not  seem  to  me  the  most  simple  or  natural  mean- 
ing), the  words,  "  For  His  body's  sake  which  is  the  Church," 
,  would  at  once  strike  at  the  root  of  the  notion,  that  he  was  en- 
during tribulations  in  order  to  procure  some  higher  rewards  for 
himself.  He  could  only  say  in  that  case,  that  he  was  entering 
into  the  meaning  and  mystery  of  his  Master's  sufferings  ;  that, 
as  He  gave  up  Himself  for  the  Church,  that  he  might  sanctify  it 
and  present  it  pure  and  glorious,  so  the  Apostle  was  permitted 
to  suffer  in  his  slight  measure  and  degree,  in  the  same  spirit  and 
for  the  same  end,  an  end  most  contrary  to  that  which  the  Colos- 
sians  dreamt  of  when  they  thought  of  supplying  the  deficiencies 
of  Christ's  work.  But  if  we  read  the  words,  "  the  sufferings  and 
tribulations  of  the  Christ  in  my  flesh,"  we  get  a  sense  which  I 
believe  is  more  in  accordance  with  the  whole  passage  ;  which 
avoids  the  possible  misconstruction  that  there  might  be  in  the 
other ;  which  equally  justifies  the  truth  that  was  latent  in  the 
error  of  the  Colossians  ;  which  even  more  effectually  confounds 
their  error.  He  does  not  claim  even  the  sufferings  as  his  own. 
They  are  the  sufferings  of  the  Christ  in  him, — the  pain  and  sor- 
row^ which  he  must  go  on  feeling  in  His  servant,  as  He  felt  them 
upon  earth  in  that  flesh  w^hich  He  took,  from  the  strifes  and  con- 
tradictions of  the  world  which  He  came  to  redeem,  from  that 
struggle  with  the  powers  of  evil  in  which  He  and  all  His  disci- 
ples were  engaged.  And  this  conflict  of  the  Christ  within  him, 
was  "  for  the  sake  of  His  Body  the  Church  of  which  I  have  been 
made  a  minister,  according  to  the  dispensation  of  God  which  has 
been  given  me  to  fulfil  the  word  of  God, — the  mystery  which  has 
been  hidden  from  the  ages  and  from  the  generations,  but  has 
now  been  manifested  to  His  saints ;    to  whom   God  was  pleased 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    COLOSSI ANS.  4OI 

to  make  known  what  is  the  riches  of  the  glory  of  this  mystery  in 
the  Gentiles,  which  is  Christ  ifi  you  the  hope  of  glory  ;  whom  we 
proclaim,  warning  every  man  and  teaching  every  man  with  all 
wisdom,  that  we  may  present  every  man  perfect  in  Christ.  For 
which  end  also  I  am  laboring,  striving  according  to  His  energy 
that  is  energizing  in  me  mightily." 

I  think  that  this  passage  confirms  the  view  which  I  have  taken 
of  the  other,  though  that  is  a  very  small  part  of  its  value  and 
meaning.  Nearly  every  word  points  at  one  of  those  habits  of 
mind  to  which  the  Colossians  were  liable,  yet,  without  rudely  at- 
tacking it,  nay,  while  vindicating  it  and  giving  it  its  proper  di- 
rection. The  teachers  who  had  appeared  in  Colosse  must  have 
spoken  much  of  an  unfathomable  mystery  or  abyss,  of  a  divine 
fulness,  out  of  which  a  number  of  partial  illuminations  and  man- 
ifestations had  proceeded,  of  a  perfectness  or  thorough  initia- 
tion, which  belonged  to  certain  men  who  had  purified  themselves 
from  the  sensuality  of  the  crowd,  and  had  risen  above  the  child- 
ish wisdom  of  the  novitiate.  Each  of  these  thoughts,  though 
pregnant  with  so  much  of  Pantheism,  of  vagueness,  of  self-glori- 
fication, the  Apostle  appropriates  and  redeems.  There  is  a  mys- 
tery which  was  hid  from  ages  and  generations.  But  it  has  now 
been  made  manifest.  He  is  sent  forth  to  declare  it  in  its  ful- 
ness. He  is  to  counsel  and  teach  every  mafi,  that  he  may  present 
every  man  perfect  and  thoroughly  initiated  in  Christ  Jesus. 
How  can  that  be  possible  ?  how  can  the  wise  and  the  foolish  be 
so  levelled  r  Because  the  mystery  which  he  has  found  in  him- 
self, which  he  is  to  declare  to  them,  was  "  Christ  in  them  the 
hope  of  glory."  As  it  was  Christ  in  Paul  who  was  suffering  and 
striving  for  the  Church — the  object  of  his  instruction,  of  his  suf- 
fering, of  his  Gospel,  was  to  make  each  Gentile,  each  man,  know 
that  Christ  was  in  him,  the  very  Christ  who  was  in  his  brother  ; 
therefore,  that  he  was  not  to  exalt  himself  above  his  brother,  was 
not  to  dream  of  high  mystical  flights  and  raptures  by  which  he 
might  scale  heaven,  but  in  toiling,  suffering,  teaching  was  to 
enter  into  the  loving  mind  of  his  Lord. 

In  the  next  paragraph,  which  forms  the  beginning:  of  our  sec- 

26 


402  LECTURE    II. 

ond  chapter,  other  expressions  occur  which  more  obviously, 
though  not  more  really,  belong  to  the  Gnostical  temperament, 
than  those  of  which  I  have  already  spoken.  Spiritual  under- 
standing, wisdom,  knowledge,  perception  of  mysteries,  were  the 
privileges  which  the  Colossians  had  learnt  to  think  the  highest 
of  all.  Each  teacher  would  be  great  in  proportion  as  he  could 
make  pretension  to  these.  They  would  be  spoken  of  as  the  re- 
wards of  mortification  of  the  flesh.  The  spiritual,  initiated  man 
might  hope  to  converse  with  angels,  to  be  admitted  into  intui- 
tions of  the  most  secret  and  divine  treasures.  Above  all,  the 
philosophized  Jewish  Christian,  fresh  from  the  school  of  Alexan- 
dria, would  speak  of  his  great  advafitages  in  this  respect, — how 
his  circumcision  was  the  divine  and  appointed  instrument  of 
bringing  him  out  of  his  fleshly  nature  into  spiritual  apprehen- 
sions. He  would  tell  the  Gentile  that  baptism  might  serve  him 
as  a  purification  from  outward  defilements,  and  an  induction  into 
some  of  the  lower  heights  of  knowledge  and  spirituality.  We 
may  easily  believe  that  there  were  also  Gentile  teachers  who  be- 
lieved that  baptism  was  the  beginning  of  a  system  of  purification, 
by  which  they  might  hope  to  attain  a  vision  as  clear  as  any  child 
of  Abraham.  There  can  be  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  one 
dwelt  on  the  circumcision  of  Christ,  the  other  on  His  baptism, 
and  that  they  attached  a  mystical  signification  to  both,  fixing 
upon  them,  probably,  as  great  crises  in  His  life,  when  the  divine 
became  more  entirely  blended  in  Him  with  the  human,  or  when 
the  spiritual  nature  actually  displaced  and  expelled  the  earthly. 

If  we  read  the  next  chapter  of  the  Epistle  with  even  these  rude 
hints  in  our  minds,  we  may  understand  better  the  emphasis  with 
which  St.  Paul  dwells  on  his  prayer,,  that  their  hearts  may  be 
comforted,  being  knit  together  in  love,  into  all  the  riches  of  the 
full  assurance  of  understanding  :  so  intimating  that  only  while 
working  together  as  members  of  a  body  in  the  power  of  love 
could  they  attain  those  intellectual  gifts  which  were  the  excuses 
for  their  self-exaltation.  We  can  see  why  he  desires  for  them 
the  acknowledgment  of  the  mystery  of  the  Christ  of  God,  in 
whom  are  all  the  treasures   of  wisdom   and  knowledge  hidden, 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    COLOSSIANS.  4O3 

those  treasures  which  they  were  fancying  they  could  grasp  at  b}?' 
their  high  thoughts  and  exercises.  As  usual,  he  does  not  speak 
of  the  disturbers  who  had  come  into  the  Church  till  he  had 
spoken  first  of  its  order  and  its  constitution  in  Christ.  This  he 
can  behold  and  rejoice  in,  though  he  has  never  seen  them  with 
his  bodily  eyes.  He  does  not  wish  to  make  them  something 
different  from  what  they  are,  but  to  have  them  rooted  and  built 
up  in  Christ,  strengthened  in  the  faith,  abounding  in  thanksgiving 
for  the  inheritance  upon  which  they  had  entered.  Certain  plau- 
sible men,  with  plausible  speeches,  were  bidding  them  seek,  as  if 
it  were  far  off,  that  blessing  which  had  been  brought  nigh  to 
them,  that  state  in  which  they  were  living  and  moving  and  having 
their  being.  They  were  told  that  certain  philosophical  specula- 
tions, or  the  following  of  certain  human  traditions,  or  the  prac- 
tice of  certain  external  rites,  might  by  degrees  bring  them  into 
the  fulness  of  the  Godhead.  But  all  that  fulness  of  the  Godhead 
dwells  bodily  in  Christ,  and  they  had  that  fulness  in  Him,  and 
they  were  partakers  of  His  circumcision,  a  circumcision  made 
without  hands ;  and  they  had  put  off  the  body  of  the  flesh  in 
Him,  they  had  been  buried  with  Him  in  baptism  ;  they  had  been 
raised  up  together  in  Him  through  the  faith  of  the  energy  of  God 
who  had  raised  Him  from  the  dead.  Thus  the  completeness  of 
Christ's  revelation,  and  work,  and  the  complete  redemption  and 
constitution  of  their  society  in  Him,  became  the  great  apostolical 
witnesses  against  the  Gnostical  tendency,  and  against  the  out- 
ward machinery  of  which  it  was  availing  itself.  God  had  already 
brought  them  into  the  state  into  which  they  were  trying  to  climb. 
The  knowledge  which  they  wanted  was  the  knowledge  of  that 
state.  They  had  the  circumcision  of  Christ ;  let  them  claim  their 
deliverance  from  fleshly  lusts  which  he  had  won  for  them.  They 
had  the  baptism  into  Christ's  death  and  resurrection  ;  let  them 
act  as  if  they  were  dead  with  Him  and  risen  with  Him. 

"  For,"  he  goes  on,  "  you  being  dead  in  transgressions  and  the 
uncircumcision  of  your  flesh.  He  hath  quickened  together  with 
Him,  having  forgiven  us  all  transgressions,  having  wiped  out  the 
handwriting  that  was  against  us  in  decrees,  which  was  contrary 


404  LECTURE    II. 

to  US,  and  He  took  it  out  of  the  way,  having  nailed  it  to  the 
cross."  This  language  is  not  new  to  us.  In  one  respect  or 
another  it  has  been  brought  before  us  in  every  epistle.  But 
here  it  has  a  peculiar  application.  The  want  of  the  belief  that 
their  transgressions  were  pardoned,  the  belief  that  they  were 
still  under  institutions  which  were  to  effect  this  pardon  for  them, 
not  under  institutions  which  were  witnesses  that  they  had  re- 
ceived it,  was  a  perpetual  excuse  for  all  Gnostical  speculations, 
for  all  Gnostical  asceticism.  To  say  then  that  Christ  had  nailed 
these  decrees  as  well  as  their  sins  to  His  cross,  that  in  that  cross 
the  reconciliation  of  the  Godhead  with  man  was  satisfactory  and 
effectual,  was  to  strike  at  the  root  of  the  new  teaching,  to  kill  it 
utterly.  Still  it  was  necessary  to  go  into  the  particulars,  that 
they  might  understand  how  the  Apostle's  doctrine  met  their  case. 
When  he  speaks  of  Christ  as  having  spoiled  the  principalities 
and  the  powers,  of  His  displaying  them  openly,  of  His  triumph- 
ing over  them,  we  are  at  once  led  into  the  heart  of  those  aspira- 
tions after  acquaintance  with  intermediate  powers  and  agencies 
which  were  another  symptom  of  this  Church's  distemper.  What 
need  had  they  of  such  aspirations  if  the  Lord  who  had  taken 
their  flesh  was  higher  than  all  these,  if  he  had  proved  His  do- 
minion over  them  ?  But  along  with  these  aspirations  came  mi- 
nute and  wearisome  prescriptions  about  meat  and  drink,  about 
feasts  and  new  moons  and  sabbaths ;  all  which  were  an  excuse 
for  hard  judgments  and  for  lordship  and  tyranny  in  particular 
teachers.  With  this  came  a  mock  humility,  and  the  service  of 
daemons  and  angels,  and  a  pompous  contempt  of  visible  things, 
and  an  inflation  supposed  to  be  spiritual  but  really  proceeding 
from  the  mind  of  the  flesh.  Let  them  understand  that  shadows 
had  passed  away,  and  that  a  substance  had  succeeded  them. 
Let  them  know  that  they  were  not  to  look  up  to  angels,  but  to 
hold  to  the  Head  of  angels,  to  Him  in  whom  the  whole  body 
was  knit  together  in  joints  and  bands,  by  whom  it  was  supplied 
with  continual  nourishment  so  as  to  be  capable  of  a  perpetual 
and  divine  growth.  They  were  dead  with  Christ  from  the  ele- 
ments of  the  world.     Why  then  did  they  act  as  if  they  were  still 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    COLOSSIANS.  405 

living  under  its  rules  ?  why  did  they  lay  down  rules  for  each 
other  against  touching  and  tasting  and  handling  ?  These  things 
belonged  to  the  earthly  and  the  perishable  ;  they  belonged  to 
human  commands  and  maxims.  They  had  an  appearance  of 
wisdom.  Will-worslflp,  mock-humiliation,  contempt  of  the  body, 
were  all  plausible  promising  methods  of  attaining  higher  ends. 
But  they  had  no  real  worth,  they  were  suggested  by  the  flesh, 
and  they  did  not  satisfy  the  flesh. 

In  the  following  chapter,  St.  Paul  still  adheres  to  the  mode  of 
thinking,  and  in  a  degree  to  the  phraseology,  of  those  against 
whom  he  is  warning  the  Colossians.  The  new  teachers  would 
have  continually  exhorted  them  to  raise  their  minds  to  the 
things  on  high,  not  to  dwell  in  the  things  that  are  upon  the 
earth.  They  would  have  bid  them  put  to  death  their  members 
that  were  directed  to  the  things  upon  the  earth, — all  their  earthly 
and  fleshly  appetites.  St.  Paul  makes  no  dishonest  appropria- 
tion of  their  phrases,  while  he  turns  them  to  another  use.  He 
extracts  the  true  and  living  sense  out  of  them,  he  shows  how  the 
result  which  they  w^ere  setting  before  themselves  could  not 
be  obtained  by  their  means  ;  he  shows  what  a  much  higher 
result  might  be  attained  by  the  faith  which  they  were  setting  at 
nought  and  denying.  They  were  to  seek  the  things  that  were 
above,  because  they  had  been  raised  up  with  Christ,  and  because 
He  was  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  They  were  to  think  of 
the  things  that  were  above,  not  of  those  upon  the  earth,  because 
they  were  dead,  and  their  life  was  hid  with  Christ  in  God,  and 
because  when  Christ  their  life  was  manifested,  then  would  they 
be  manifested  with  Him  in  glory.  On  the  other  hand,  the  mem- 
bers which  they  were  to  put  to  death  were  not  their  bodies,  but 
the  things  which  were  destroying  their  bodies  as  much  as  their 
spirits  ;  fornication,  uncleanness,  grovelling  passions,  evil  con- 
cupiscence and  the  covetousness  which  is  idolatry,  for  which 
things'  sake,  he  tells  them  as  he  told  the  Ephesians,  comes  the 
wrath  of  God  upon  the  children  of  disobedience,  in  which  things 
they  walked  while  they  lived  in  them.  But  now  they  had  put  off 
these,  anger,  wrath,  malice,  evil   speaking,  filthy  communication 


406  LECTURE    II. 

out  of  their  mouth.  We  see  how  much  the  Apostle  rises  above 
the  Gnostical  doctors  in  his  estimate  of  what  men  redeemed  by 
Christ  and  united  to  him  may  attain;  not  certain  visions  or 
glimpses  of  a  spiritual  world,  not  converse  with  aeons  or 
archangels,  but  the  very  knowledge  and  nature  of  God  Himself. 
We  see  how  much  he  dives  below  the  depths  of  the  Gnostical 
teachers  when  he  speaks  of  the  vices  from  which  men  are  to  be 
delivered  j  how  he  strikes  at  the  root  while  they  were  playing  on 
the  surface.  And  yet  he  is  the  plain  practical  man,  they  are  the 
speculators.  It  is  common  homely  morality  to  which  he  is 
leading  his  disciples,  a  morality  which  the  others  very  com- 
monly despised  and  only  seldom  attained.  The  Apostle  uses 
the  broad  rude  language,  "  Do  not  lie  one  to  another,"  knowing 
perfectly  well  that  the  members  of  the  Christian  Church  in  that 
day,  as  in  all  subsequent  days,  were  exceedingly  apt  to  lie,  and 
that  high  notions  of  their  own  spirituality  were  no  protection 
against  that  infirmity.  The  protection  against  it  was  just  that 
which  he  had  been  setting  before  them  throughout  his  letter  ; 
"  Lie  not  one  to  another  ;  having  stripped  off  from  yourselves 
the  old  man  with  his  deeds,  and  having  clothed  yourself  with 
the  new  man,  him  that  is  renewed  in  knowledge  after  the  image 
of  Him  that  created  him,  where  there  is  not  Greek  and  Jew,  cir- 
cumcision and  uncircumcision,  barbarian,  Scythian,  slave  and 
free  ;  but  Christ  all  and  in  all." 

I  do  not  know  whether  there  is  a  nobler  passage  in  all 
St.  Paul's  epistles  than  this,  one  that  proves  more  clearly  how 
the  plainest  law  of  individual  morality  is  involved  with  the  great 
principle  of  human  brotherhood,  or  how  that  is  grounded  upon 
the  divine  and  glorified  humanity  of  Christ.  Nor  is  there  a  pas- 
sage which,  taken  in  connection  with  the  one  that  follows,  more 
clearly  shows  how  needful  it  is  that  we  should  claim  our  rights  as 
men  that  have  been  regenerated,  in  order  that  we  may  rise  con- 
dnually  to  newness  of  life.  They  had  put  on  the  new  man, 
*'  therefore  put  on,  as  elect  of  God  holy  and  beloved,  bowels  of 
mercies,  gentleness,  humility  " — (that  very  humility  which  the 
Gnostical    teachers   were    mimicking   with    their    humble  airs), 


EPISTLE    TO    THE    COLOSSIANS.  40/ 

"  moderation,  long-suffering — forbearing  one  another  and  for- 
giving one  another,  if  any  hath  a  complaint  against  any,  as  also 
the  Lord  hath  forgiven  you.  And  above  all  this  clothing,  that 
love  which  is  the  bond  of  perfection."  The  last  word  shows  us 
how  thoroughly  St.  Paul  recollects  the  business  of  his  Epistle 
even  when  he  is  most  carried  away  by  his  inspiration.  How  to 
make  an  initiated  or  perfect  man  who  should  be  above  all  others, 
was  the  Gnostical  problem  ;  St.  Paul  solves  it  by  saying,  "  the 
love  which  makes  you  submit  to  all  others,  which  binds  you  to 
all  others,  is  the  secret  of  perfection." 

Upon  this  foundation  he  grounds  here,  as  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Ephesians,  the  whole  edifice  of  social  life  of  which  the  Gnostics 
took  so  little  account.  But  first  he  begins  with  the  spiritual  life 
of  w^iich  they  did  take  account,  and  for  the  cultivation  of  which 
they  had  so  many  rules  and  contrivances.  St.  Paul  has  only  a 
few,  but  they  are  very  comprehensive.  "  You  have  been  called 
in  one  body  into  the  peace  of  Christ ;  let  that  rule  in  your 
hearts.  Be  thankful.  Let  Christ's  word  dwell  in  you  richly. 
Teach  and  exhort  one  another.  Sing  and  make  melody  in  your 
hearts  to  God.  Whatever  you  do,  do  all  in  the  name  of  Christ, 
thanking  God  and  the  Father  in  Him."  Instead  of  the  self- 
exalting  life,  you  have  the  life  of  men  who  are  submitting  them- 
selves to  a  blessed  power  of  good  which  is  striving  to  bless 
them.  Instead  of  the  individual  life  you  have  the  life  of  mutual 
instruction,  edification,  encouragement.  Instead  of  the  ambi- 
tious life  of  the  would-be  sage  or  saint,  you  have  the  musical  life 
of  the  churchman  who  feels  himself  one  of  a  family,  who  can  do 
nothing  but  in  the  Name  of  Him  who  is  the  Head  of  it. 

And  then  comes  these  vulgar  outward  family  duties,  so 
obstructive  to  all  spiritual  contemplation  in  the  judgment  of  the 
Gnostic,  such  precious  elements  in  the  unselfish  spiritual  king- 
dom, according  to  St.  Paul.  They  are  not  specially  different 
from  those  we  have  gone  through  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  ; 
but  they  serve  a  different  purpose  here.  Like  the  exhortations  to 
prayer  for  himself  that  God  would  open  a  door  to  him  to  speak 
the  mystery  of   Christ,  like  all  the  special  greetings  from  friends 


408  LECTURE    II. 

and  to  friends,  like  the  greeting  with  his  own  hand  and  the 
prayer  to  remember  his  bonds,  they  are  all  testimonies  that  the 
highest  and  divinest  faith  is  the  least  abstract,  the  most  human 
and  homely  and  personal. 


/ 

THE  FIRST  AND  SECOND  EPISTLES  TO  THE  THES- 
SALONIANS. 


These  Epistles,  which  stand  last  among  the  ecclesiastical 
Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  according  to  our  arrangement,  are  com- 
monly supposed  to  have  been  the  first  in  the  order  of  time.  I 
have  not  attempted  to  ascertain  the  chronology  of  the  other 
Epistles,  and  I  do  not  mean  to  enter  into  the  proofs  which  have 
been  urged  and  accepted  in  support  of  this  opinion  respecting 
these.  .  The  motive  for  placing  them  where  we  find  them  was 
probably  a  doctrinal  one.  The  letters  to  the  Thessalonians 
speak  more  distinctly  of  a  judgment  than  any  which  have 
preceded  them  ;  therefore  though  they  might  be  comparatively 
early  writings  of  the  Apostle,  it  appeared  as  if  for  purposes  of 
theology  and  church-history  they  should  be  postponed  to  the  rest. 

The  history  of  the  foundation  of  this  Church,  in  the  seven- 
teenth chapter  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  is  important  for  the 
illustration  of  the  Epistles.  The  Apostle  seems  to  have  passed 
rapidly  through  other  cities  of  Macedonia,  because  there  were 
no  synagogues  in  them.  In  Thessalonica  he  found  one,  and  for 
three  sabbath-days  reasoned  there  out  of  the  Sciiptures.  The 
subject  of  this  discourse  was  entirely  adapted  to  the  Jewish  state 
of  feeling.  He  had  not  to  prove  that  there  was  a  Christ,  but 
that  the  Christ  must  needs  suffer  and  rise  from  the  dead,  and 
that  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the-  crucified  Man,  was  this  Christ.  A 
few,  it  appears,  of   the  Jews  believed  the  word,  and   consorted 


I,    AND    II.    EPISTLES    TO    THE    THESSALONIANS.         4O9 

with  Paul  and  Silas.  But  the  great  majority  of  their  converts 
were  from  devout  Greeks,  —  proselytes,  apparently,  who  fre- 
quented the  synagogue.  Then  began  a  fiercer  opposition  from 
the  circumcised  party  than  they  had  yet  encountered.  First, 
they  sought  to  incite  the  populace  against  the  new  preachers, 
who  assaulted  the  house  of  Paul's  entertainer.  Then,  they 
either  in  their  own  persons,  or  through  "  lewd  fellows  of  the 
baser  sort,"  sought  to  alarm  the  representatives  of  the  empire, 
by  the  old  argument,  "  these  men  that  have  turned  the  world 
upside  down,  are  come  hither  also  :  which  all  do  contrary  to  the 
decrees  of  Caesar,  saying,  that  there  is  another  king,  one  Jesus." 
I  call  it  an  old  argument  because  it  is  one  which  had  been  used 
against  our  Lord  when  He  was  brought  before  Pilate,  But  so 
far  as  St.  Paul's  experience  had  gone,  it  w^as  new.  He  had  had 
the  sharpest  conflicts  with  his  countrymen .;  but  they  had  turned 
on  the  question  whether  Jesus  was  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God. 
As  yet  they  had  not  made  use  of  the  only  plea  against  him  which 
had  any  real  weight  with  their  masters.  Here  it  was  successful. 
The  rulers  were  troubled,  and  took  security  of  Jason  and 
the  others.  Paul  and  Silas  were  sent  away  by  night  into  Beroea. 
Thus  the  ground  of  this  Church  was  laid  amidst  more  than 
usual  persecution.  The  circumstances  of  its  birth  portended 
storms  in  its  childhood  and  youth.  There  could  be  no  doubt 
from  what  quarter  the  opposition  would  come,  or  what  form  it 
would  take.  A  violent  Jewish  faction  would  denounce  the  notion 
that  Jesus  was  the  King  whom  their  nation  had  been  expecting, 
would  avail  themselves  of  the  help  of  those  whose  dominion 
they  most  hated,  to  oppose  His  pretensions,  would  put  forth  an 
idea  of  the  Christ  as  unlike  as  possible  to  that  which  was 
exhibited  in  Him,  would  be  ready  to  welcome  any  person  who 
embodied  this  idea.  These  were  the  symptoms  which  clearly 
foreshowed  to  the  Apostle  the  coming  ruin  of  his  nation,  the 
approach  of  the  events  which  our  Lord  had  said  would  take 
place  before  that  generation  had  passed  away.  The  thoughts  of 
an  Antichrist  and  of  a  judgment  were  thus  forced  upon  St. 
Paul,  by  the  circumstances  of  the  Thessalonians,  more  distinctly 


410  LECTURE    II. 

and  prominently  than  they  were  by  those  of  any  other  Church. 
Nor  could  he  help  seeing,  in  those  circumstances,  an  indication 
that  there  might  be  a  strange  blending  of  Gentile  and  Jewish 
maxims  in  the  time  that  was  at  hand,  that  the  new  Christ  might 
possibly  be  clothed  with  the  purple,  though  he  might  also  pre- 
sent himself  in  some  form  which  should  satisfy  the  ambition  of 
those  who  sought  for  an  heir  of  the  house  of  David.  The  vision, 
in  whichever  way  it  was  looked  at,  was  most  portentous.  The 
Jew  must  more  utterly  and  openly  deny  the  God  of  Abraham 
than  he  had  denied  him  yet,  before  he  could  quite  bow  down 
before  an  image  that  was  directly  opposed  to  that  of  a  King 
reigning  in  righteousness.  The  tyranny  of  the  Caesars  must 
become  more  utterly  frightful,  more  entirely  brutal  and  godless 
than  it  had  yet  been.  Finally,  the  awful  saying  of  Christ, 
that  love  of  many  would  wax  cold,  that  the  false  Christs  might 
almost  deceive  the  very  elect,  even  if  they  had  not  been  inter- 
preted by  the  experience  of  the  perils  of  the  infant  Churches, 
could  not  but  suggest  the  fear  that  Christians  would  participate 
in  all  the  temptations  of  the  surrounding  world,  and  that  many  of 
them  would  fall  into  an  abyss  as  much  deeper  than  that  of  Jews 
or  Gentiles,  as  their  exaltation  had  been  greater.  If  one  con- 
nects with  these  reflections  the  extreme  tenderness  and  affection 
which  the  Apostle  felt  for  this  Church,  a  tenderness  and  affection 
like  that  of  a  mother  for  a  child  which  is  passing  through  the 
crisis  of  a  disease,  we  shall  be  furnished  with  most  of  the  data 
which  we  require  for  the  interpretation  of  this  Epistle. 

Persecution  would  seem  to  be  a  condition  so  common  to 
all  Churches,  that  the  reader  may  hardly  be  prepared  to  look  at 
it  specially  in  reference  to  the  Thessalonians.  But  after  going 
through  so  many  of  the  Pauline  Epistles,  I  may  boldly  say  that 
persecution  is  not  a  leading  topic  in  any  one  of  them,  except  in 
that  to  the  other  Macedonian  Church  at  Philippi.  And  in  that 
society,  the  effects  of  persecution  were  evidently  different  from 
those  which  the  Apostle  discovered  among  the  Thessalonians. 
These  last  do  not  seem  to  have  been  cast  down  or  overwhelmed 
by  the  afflictions  which  they  endured.     Despondency  was  at  any 


I.    AND    II.    EPISTLES    TO    THE    THESSALONIANS.         4II 

rate  not  their  chief  failing.  The  character  of  the  opposition 
which  they  underwent  apparently  led  the  Apostle,  while  he  was 
with  them,  to  speak  much  of  the  coming  day  of  the  Lord,  and  to 
use  the  expectation  of  it  as  an  encouragement  to  patience  and 
hope.  Such  words  were  as  easily  perverted  then  as  since. 
What  need  for  men  to  toil  and  get  their  bread  if  some  great 
event  was  at  hand  }  Might  it  not  take  them  away  from  all  earthly 
things,  or  give  them  such  a  command  of  earthly  things  as  they 
had  never  had  before  ?  With  this  kind  of  listlessness  about  the 
present,  is  apt  to  spring  up  an  indifference  to  common  earthly 
morality,  not  fully  developed,  but  making  itself  apparent  from 
time  to  time.  Speculations  about  the  future,  about  the  nearness 
or  distance  of  the  events  to  which  the  Apostle  had  alluded, 
would  occupy  much  of  the  minds  of  the  Christians.  All  bright- 
ness being  seen  in  the  future,  only  a  gloom  resting  on  the  past, 
the  world  before  the  time  of  Christ's  appearing  would  look  very 
blank  and  dreary  :  how  sad  to  have  lived  and  died  in  that 
period  !  With  these  tendencies,  which  persecution  is  so  likely  to 
generate,  would  be  mixed  many  of  the  graces  and  virtues  which 
God  uses  it  to  call  forth, — courage  and  endurance,  with  a 
brotherly  affection  and  sympathy  not  wholly  unaffected  by  the 
evil  habits  to  which  I  have  alluded,  but  still  acquiring  strength 
from  the  presence  of  the  adversaries.  It  would  be,  not  seldom, 
accompanied  by  a  somewhat  reckless  defiance  of  them  and 
a  proud  contempt  of  their  opinion. 

The  mischievous  influences  which  were  at  work  in  this  Church, 
only  reveal  themselves  gradually  in  the  midst  of  the  earnest 
thanksgivings  of  the  Apostle  to  God  for  their  work  of  faith  and 
labor  of  love  and  patience  of  hope  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
He  rejoices  that  they  know  their  election  of  God ;  that  His  Gos- 
pel did  not  come  to  them  in  word  only,  but  in  power  and  in  the 
Holy  Spirit  and  much  assurance  ;  that  they  were  imitators  of 
him,  and  of  the  Lord,  inasmuch  as  they  had  received  the  word 
amidst  much  tribulation  with  joy  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  that  they 
were  examples  to  all  the  believers  in  Macedonia  and  Achaia ; 
that  their  faith  in  God  was  known  everywhere  ;   and  that  from 


412  LECTURE    II. 

them  the  word  of  the  Lord  had  sounded  forth  far  and  wide. 
Again  and  again  he  commemorates  the  nature  and  depth  of  their 
conversion  in  the  memorable  and  expressive  words,  that  they  had 
turned  from  idols  to  God,  to  serve  a  living  and  true  God.  Again 
and  again  he  connects  that  service  with  the  waiting  for  His  Son 
from  the  Heavens  whom  he  raised  from  the  dead,  Jesus  the 
deliverer  of  us  from  the  wrath  that  is  coming. 

These  words  may  show  that  it  is  far  enough  from  the  Apostle's 
intention  to  explain  away  the  language  of  his  discourses,  or 
to  alter  the  character  of  the  teaching  which  had  been  so  effectual 
at  the  first,  in  consequence  of  the  discovery  that  it  had  been  per- 
verted. We  ought  carefully  to  remember  that  this  is  never  his 
method,  that  he  does  not  qualify  the  truths  which  he  had  thought 
necessary  at  a  former  time,  or  exchange  them  for  others,  but 
labors  to  bring  them  out  in  the  fulness  of  their  meaning,  this 
being  the  right  correction  for  any  partial  apprehensions  of  them. 
But  first  he  enters  with  more  than  usuar  particularity  into  the 
manner  of  life  of  himself  and  his  fellow-missionaries  among  them. 
He  does  not  apparently  introduce  this  topic  for  the  reason  which 
made  it  necessary  among  the  Corinthians,  because  his  objects 
had  been  misrepresented,  or  because  other  teachers  were  set  up 
in  rivalry  against  him.  The  Thessalonians,  so  far  as  we  can 
gather  from  the  letter,  returned  his  affection  to  them,  and 
had  been  from  the  first  as  much  influenced  by  his  life  as  by  his 
words.  For  that  reason  he  is  the  more  anxious  to  recall  to  them 
what  it  was  that  they  observed  in  him,  which  they  recognized  as 
coming  from  God,  which  at  once  found  its  way  to  their  hearts. 
Was  it  not  a  watchful  tender  behavior  towards  them  while  they 
were  yet  Gentiles,  a  gentleness  and  tenderness  which  they  saw 
was  entirely  free  from  flattery,  was  not  prompted  by  any  motive 
of  covetousness  ?  Was  it  not  their  labor  and  hardships,  the  toil 
with  their  own  hands  that  they  might  not  be  chargeable  to  any, 
by  which  Paul ,  and  Silas  had  proved  how  dear  they  were  to 
them?  Was  it  not  the  continuance  of  holy  and  blameless 
behavior  among  those  who  had  believed,  the  exhortations  and 
warnings  by  which  they  showed  them  how  much  care  they  needed 


I.    AND    II.    EPISTLES    TO    THE    THESSALONIANS.  413 

to  keep  the  treasure  which  they  had  won,  to  walk  worthy  of  the 
God  who  was  calling  them  into  His  own  kingdom  and  glory  ? 

St.  Paul  could  apply  language  of  this  kind  as  freely  to  himself 
as  to  any  other  man  when  it  was  called  for  and  would  do 
any  good.  The  edge  of  the  self-praise  is  all  taken  off  in  the 
next  sentence,  in  which  he  thanks  God  that  when  they  received 
the  word  of  God  from  him  and  Silas,  they  received  it  not 
as  the  word  of  man,  but  as  it  is  in  truth,  the  word  of  God, 
which  is  energizing  in  us  who  believe  it.  The  same  word 
energized  in  the  Thessalonians,  for  they  became  imitators  of  the 
Churches  of  God  that  were  in  Judaea  in  Christ  Jesus.  The  rea- 
son for  alluding  specially  to  those  Churches  is  given  immediately 
after.  The  sufferings  of  the  Thessalonians  had  been  caused  by 
the  same  persons  who  were  the  authors  of  their  sufferings.  Jews 
in  Macedonia  had  proved  their  affinity  with  Jews  in  Palestine, 
who  had  persecuted  the  Lord  Jesus  and  the  Prophets,  who  had 
persecuted  also  the  Apostles,  forbidding  them  to  speak  to 
the  Gentiles  that  they  might  be  saved,  so  as  to  fill  up  their  sins 
altogether.     For  the  wrath  had  come  upon  them  even  to  the  end. 

Both  the  allusions  of  the  Apostle  to  his  own  life,  and  those 
to  the  Jewish  enemies  of  the  Thessalonians,  have  a  reference  to 
the  infirmities  which  he  had  observed  in  them  as  well  as  to  the 
hopes  which  they  were  indulging.  Without  telling  them  directly 
that  they  were  not  laboring  with  their  own  hands,  not  walking 
wisely  towards  their  heathen  neighbors,  fiot  careful  in  all  their 
inner  life  to  keep  the  light  burning,  in  all  their  outward  acts  to 
let  it  shine  before  men,  the  example  of  what  their  first  teachers 
had  been,  the  recollection  of  the  impression  which  this  example 
had  made  upon  them,  would  be  the  most  effectual  admonition 
that  he  could  administer.  And  the  hint  about  the  Jews  did  not 
merely  remind  them  that  the  Apostle  was  a  much  greater 
sufferer  than  they  were  from  the  same  opponents  ;  it  told  them 
what  the  cause  of  the  Jewish  hostility  was,  how  it  grew  out  of  a 
godless  and  inhuman  unwillingness  that  other  men  should  share 
in  their  privileges.  It  reminded  them  that  the  day  of  redemption 
they  were  expecting,  and  had  a  right  to  expect,  would  be  also  a 


414  LECTURE    II. 

day  of  wrath  which  would  not  be  accomphshed  till  God's  own 
chosen  people  had  suffered  that  tremendous  downfall,  which,  as 
St.  Paul  told  the  Romans,  he  would  have  been  himself  accursed 
from  Christ  to  avert. 

The  appearing  of  Christ  then  to  which  the  Apostle  had  taught 
them  to  look  forward,  was  connected  with  sorrow  and  tribulation 
both  to  themselves  and  to  the  world.  It  was  not  one  which  he 
or  they  dared  look  forward  to  as  the  accomplishment  of  any 
selfish  dreams.  He  expresses  the  desire  which  he  had  felt  to 
come  to  them,  it  would  seem,  for  the  very  purpose  of  telling 
them  this.  "For,"  he  says,  "  are  you  not  our  joy  and  hope  and 
crown  of  rejoicing  before  our  Lord  Jesus  in  His  appearing?" 
The  expression  seems  thrown  in  by  the  way,  or  rather  it  starts  out 
from  the  fulness  of  the  Apostle's  heart,  without  any  reference  to 
the  subject  which  has  occupied  him.  But  the  utterances  of  an 
inspired  man,  however  little  they  may  seem  to  belong  to  a  dry 
argument,  must  illustrate  and  unfold  the  thought  which  is 
governing  him.  In  telling  them  his  own  mind  towards  them,  he 
has  given  them  a  whole  volume  of  instruction  respecting  the  day 
which  he  and  they  are  to  anticipate.  It  is  one  which  he  desires 
for  their  sakes,  for  the  sake  of  the  Church,  because  Christ  will  be 
glorified  in  them,  because  He  will  be  manifested  as  the  Lord 
both  of  Jew  and  Gentile. 

As  he  could  not  go  to  them  himself,  he  says  he  had  sent 
Timothy  to  comfort  them  and  strengthen  them,  that  the  tribula- 
tions which  they  suffered  might  not  give  occasion  to  the  tempter, 
but  that  they  might  receive  them  as  their  natural  and  appointed 
discipline.  The  report  of  Timothy  had  cheered  him.  It  had 
called  forth  fresh  thanksgivings  to  God.  For  it  had  made  him 
pray  and  desire  more  earnestly  that  he  might  see  them.  He 
trusted  that  God  Himself,  and  the  Lord  Jesus  would  direct  his 
way  to  them.  But  he  trusted  still  more  that  God  would  make 
them  to  abound  in  love  to  each  other  and  to  all,  so  as  to 
strengthen  their  hearts  unblameable  in  holiness  before  God  and 
our  Father  in  the  appearing  of  our  Lord  Jesus  with  all  his  saints. 

Every  one  must  perceive,  from   the    way  in   which    St.    Paul 


I.    AND    II.    EPISTLES    TO    THE    THESSALONIANS.  415 

recurs  to  t4iis  expression,  that  it  is  the  cardinal  one  of  this  letter. 
How  frequent  it  is  in  all  his  epistles  we  have  perceived  already. 
But  it  has  not  stood  forth  anywhere  with  the  same  distinctness 
as  here.  The  Apostle  has  not  yet  set  himself  to  remove  per- 
plexities that  directly  bore  upon  it,  and  to  connect  the  life  of  the 
Church  with  it,  as  he  does  in  writing  to  the  Thessalonians.  The 
next  passage,  with  which  we  are  all  familiar  as  an  independent 
exhortation,  should  never  be  disjoined  from  the  words  that  pre- 
cede it.  The  way  to  prepare  for  the  appearing  of  Christ  was  to 
remember  those  ordinary  vulgar  precepts  which  the  Apostle  had 
given  them,  and  which,  in  their  eagerness  and  anxiety  about  that 
which  was  to  be  hereafter,  they  were  forgetting.  For  though 
these  moral  rules  might  take  a  mere  hard  external  shape,  they 
were  connected  with  the  most  profound  theology,  with  the  most 
mysterious  spiritual  principles.  The  precept  to  "  abstain  from 
fornication,"  was  grounded  on  the  doctrine  that  "  this  is  the  will 
of  God,  even  your  sanctification,"  The  rule  not  to  overreach 
one's  brother  in  any  matter,  was  grounded  on  the  truth  that  the 
Lord  was  the  Judge.  Both  alike  would  be  observed  if  they 
recollected  that  God  had  given  to  them  the  Holy  Spirit.  St.  Paul 
was  rejoiced  to  think  that  they  did  excel  in  love  to  the  brethren 
both  in  their  own  city  and  in  all  Macedonia.  But  he  would 
have  them  remember  that  they  had  a  duty  also  to  those  who  are 
without ;  that  quietness,  minding  their  own  business,  laboring  with 
their  own  hands,  were  spiritual  duties,  part  of  their  divine  vocation. 
Lessons  of  this  kind,  be  it  ever  remembered,  were  expressly 
suggested  by  the  Apostle's  belief,  and  his  wish  to  impress 
his  disciples  with  the  belief,  that  the  day  of  the  Lord  was  at 
hand.  In  proportion  as  the  impression  of  that  day  was  deep 
and  settled  in  their  minds,  would  they  be  free  from  restlessness 
and  anxiety,  quiet  in  the  midst  of  strife,  attentive  to  all  common 
duties,  considerate  of  their  fellow-men.  But  there  was  one  cause 
of  anxiety  which  was  not  selfish,  and  which  seemed  to  have  its 
root  in  the  very  expectation  which  the  Apostle  encouraged  them 
to  entertain.  Their  friends  who  had  died  and  left  the  world, 
what  had  become  of  them  ?    Was  not  it  a  sad  calamity  for  any 


41 6  LECTURE    II. 

who  had  not  survived  till  the  Incarnation  of  their  Lord  ?  might 
it  not  be  sad  for  those  who  should  not  survive  till  that  appearing 
of  which  the  Apostle  spoke  ?  The  thought  was  a  very  natural 
one,  more  natural  than  we  are  exactly  aware,  who  form  theories 
about  the  state  of  the  departed,  and  about  our  state,  which  have 
very  little  reference  to  any  appearing  or  manifestation  of  Christ. 
Their  minds,  formed  in  the  Apostolical  school,  could  imagine  no 
blessedness  that  was  not  associated  with  His  appearing.  The 
Apostle's  answer  to  their  difficulty  involved  the  clearest  exposi- 
tion of  the  nature  of  this  appearing  which  he  had  yet  given  them. 
They  were  not  to  limit  it  by  their  notions  respecting  time  or  locality. 
If  they  believed  that  Christ  had  died  and  risen  again,  they  believed 
in  a  union  of  both  worlds,  a  breaking  down  of  the  barrier  that 
separated  the  state  before  death  from  the  state  after  death, — the 
visible  and  the  invisible  world.  Such  a  belief,  if  they  truly  enter- 
tained it,  would  assure  them  that  those  whom  they  called  dead 
had  fallen  asleep,  but  that  Christ  was  as  much  with  them  as  He 
was  with  the  daughter  of  Jairus  or  with  Lazarus  ;  that  they  could 
as  much  hear  His  voice  as  those  departed  spirits  had  done  ;  that 
as  they  were  members  of  Christ's  body,  and  drew  their  life  from 
Him,  God  would  bring  them  with  Him. 

And  this  therefore  he  tells  them  by  the  word  of  the  Lord,  that 
"  we,  the  living  ones,  we  that  are  left  over  unto  the  appearing  of 
the  Lord,  shall  not  anticipate  those  that  have  been  put  to  sleep. 
Because  the  Lord  Himself  with  a  cry,  with  the  voice  of  an  arch- 
angel and  with  the  trump  of  God,  shall  descend  from  Heaven ; 
and  then  we,  the  living,  shall  together  with  them  be  caught  up 
in  clouds  to  meet  the  Lord  in  air ;  and  so  shall  we  be  ever  with 
the  Lord."  Sentences  which  sooner  pass  into  music  than  most 
in  the  Scriptures,  and  to  which  the  hearts  of  most  men  confess  a 
strange  response,  yet  which  give  as  much  trouble  to  the  under- 
standing as  any  that  we  know  of.  May  I  venture  to  suggest 
that  if  we  followed  the  impulses  of  our  hearts,  and  took  the  words 
as  they  stand,  and  tried  less  to  measure  them  according  to  certain 
notions  of  ours,  some  of  the  perplexities  we  have  found  in  them 
might  perhaps  disappear  ?     The  first  question  we  are  disposed 


I.    AND    II.    EPISTLES    TO    THE    THESSALONIANS.         417 

to  ask  is,  "  And  was  St.  Paul  then  alive  at  the  appearing  of  the 
Lord,  even  supposing  that  appearing  identical  with  some  event 
that  took  place  in  that  generation  ?  "  This  question  involves  a 
subject  which  has  occupied  us  much  in  former  parts  of  this  vol- 
ume ;  the  reconsideration  of  it  may  help  us  to  trace  a  unity  in 
the  books  of  the  New  Testament ;  a  full  apprehension  of  it 
would  be  the  most  satisfactory  key  to  the  connection  between 
the  history  of  the  Christian  Church  and  the  prophecies  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testament. 

All  the  hopes  of  the  old  prophets  pointed  to  an  appearing  or 
manifestation  of  a  King  of  Israel,  and  a  Son  of  God.  They  in- 
terpreted the  thoughts  and  hopes  which  were  consciously  or  un- 
consciously striving  in  all  men  whatsoever.  They  said  what  kind 
of  person  "the  desire  of  all  nations  must  be."  I  have  endeavored 
to  show  that  the  Gospels  present  such  a  person  to  us.  They 
say,  "This  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God,  this  Jesus  is  the  King  of 
Israel.  We  declare  to  you  how  He  showed,  while  He  was  upon 
earth,  walking  about  as  the  friend  of  fishermen,  as  the  carpen- 
ter's son,  that  He  had  both  these  characters.  We  affirm  that 
His  crucifixion  was  the  most  necessary  part  of  His  manifestation, 
in  these  characters,  as  well  as  of  the  work  which  he  came  to  do 
in  them.  We  affirm  that  His  resurrection  was  the  final  assur- 
ance given  here  upon  earth  that  He  was  what  the  Jewish  Sanhe- 
drim and  the  Roman  governor  denied  that  He  was.  But  that 
resurrection  involved  His  not  continuing  upon  earth.  It  was  con- 
summated by  His  ascension  to  the  right  hand  of  God.  So  He 
was  declared  to  be  both  Lord  and  Christ.  The  descent  of  the 
Spirit  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  was  the  witness  that  this  ascension 
involved  no  separation  from  his  disciples  and  witnesses  upon 
earth.  It  enabled  them  to  be  real  and  effective  witnesses  of  His 
resurrection,  that  is  to  say,  of  His  being  the  risen  and  victorious 
Lord  of  man,  the  Redeemer  of  the  Spirit  and  soul  and  body  of 
man,  the  Restorer  and  Regenerator  of  humanity."  Was  nothing 
more  involved  in  the  ascension  and  in  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  than 
this  ?  The  more  the  Apostles  received  of  the  spiritual  illumina- 
tion, the  more   they  were  certain  that  there  was.     If  Christ  had 

27 


4l8  LECTURE    II. 

died  and  risen  again,  if  He  had  ascended  on  high,  if  He  was 
both  Lord  and  Christ,  if  they  had  not  deceived  men  when  they 
bore  this  testimony  concerning  Him,  there  would  be  an  appear- 
ing or  manifestation  of  Him  in  that  character,  a  manifestation 
which  would  be  as  real  as  His  appearing  in  the  likeness  of  a 
servant,  which  would  carry  out  that  appearing  to  its  effect  and 
result,  as  the  crucifixion  had  carried  out  the  incarnation,  as  the 
resurrection  had  carried  out  the  crucifixion,  as  the  axscension  and 
descent  of  the  Spirit  had  carried  out  the  resurrection.  All  these, 
strictly  speaking,  were  parts  of  the  same  appearing,  were  differ- 
ent acts  of  the  drama,  leading  on  to  a  catastrophe  which  was 
absolutely  inevitable,  if  the  great  Hero  of  it,  He  who  had  been 
directing  the  operations. of  the  world  since  it  had  been  created, 
had  really  come  to  assert  His  own  right  over  it,  had  really  shown 
how  all  the  subordinate  personages  had  been  working  with  Him 
and  for  Him.  It  was  strictly  in  accordance  with  the  method  of 
the  old  prophets  to  regard  all  the  events  that  might  occur  in  a 
particular  generation  as  parts  of  the  same  appearing  or  day  of 
the  Lord  ;  though  the  first  might  be  separated  from  the  last  by 
an  interval  of  many  )^ears ;  though  the  events  might  be  very 
unlike  each  other  in  their  outward  character,  some  being  bright 
and  some  gloomy  ;  though  a  visitation  of  locusts  might  lead  to  an 
outpouring  of  the  Spirit,  and  that  to  some  critical  battle  in  the 
valley  of  Jehoshaphat.  The  link  between  all  these  events  was 
that  they  proved  God  was  present  and  was  at  work  for  the  put- 
ting down  of  evil,  and  the  establishment  of  righteousness.  John 
the  Baptist,  the  herald  of  the  Divine  King,  had  proclaimed  the 
wrath  that  was  coming  upon  the  land,  as  the  great  result  of  His 
coming,  that  to  which  the  preaching  of  repentance  and  the  bap- 
tism of  the  Spirit  would  lead,  that  which  would  be  the  sign  that 
the  kingdom  he  spoke  of  as  at  hand,  had  actually  been  revealed. 
We  have  seen  how  consistent  with  this  preparatory  announce- 
ment were  all  the  discourses  of  our  Lord,  and  most  conspicuous- 
ly the  one  which  preceded  the  last  Passover. 

How  then  could   St.  Paul,  if  he  were  really  imbued  with  the 
lessons  which  he  had  received  from  the  old  teachers  of  his  land, 


I.    AND    IT.    EPISTLES    TO    THE    THESSALONIANS.         419 

if  he  really  believed  the  outward  and  inward  manifestations 
which  had  been  made  to  himself,  have  doubted  that  he  was  liv- 
ing in  a  day  of  the  Lord,  in  that  day  of  the  Lord  towards  which 
all  others  had  been  leading  ?  Whether  or  not  he  should  be  on 
earth  at  the  winding  up  of  that  day, — at  the  appearing  of  the 
Lord  which  he  fully  believed,  on  his  Lord's  own  assurance,  would 
take  place  in  that  generation, — he  was  one  of  those  who  had 
been  alive  and  remained  to  the  appearing  of  the  Lord,  seeing  he 
was  a  witness  of  the  incarnation  and  the  resurrection  and  the 
ascension,  seeing  that  Christ  had  been  outwardly  revealed  to 
him  on  the  way  >to  Damascus,  seeing  that  God  had  been  pleased 
to  reveal  His  Son  in  him,  seeing  that  he  had  preached  that  Son 
as  the  Desire  of  all  nations,  to  Greeks  and  Barbarians.  And  it 
was  no  play  upon  language  to  speak  thus.  By  it  he  met  the  per- 
plexity in  the  minds  of  the  Thessalonians.  He  removed  their 
fear  about  the  condition  of  their  fathers.  He  enlarged  their 
feelings  about  the  revelation  of  the  Lord.  He  gave  them  an  ad- 
ditional assurance  of  that  revelation  which  was  yet  to  be,  and 
which  was  so  near  at  hand  by  treating  it  as  one  of  a  series  of 
events,  many  of  which  were  already  fulfilled. 

If  we  have  overcome  this  first  difficult}^,  I  do  not  think  the 
rest  of  the  passage  will  trouble  us ;  nay,  I  believe  if  we  receive 
it,  it  will  be  full  of  the  consolation  which  the  Apostle  told  the 
Thessalonians  there  lay  in  it.  He  affirms  certainly  that  the  Lord 
would  descend  from  Heaven  with  the  voice  of  an  archangel  and 
the  trump  of  God.  And  if  we  believe  in  our  Lord's  own  words 
respecting  the  earthquakes  and  the  distress  of  nations  with  per- 
plexity, which  were  to  occur  in  that  generation,  we  may  well  be- 
lieve that  a  trumpet  did  sound,  that  the  voice  of  the  archangel 
was  heard  by  mortal',  ears.  Nor  does  it  signify,  as  far  as  the 
statement  of  the  Apostle  is  concerned,  whether  that  voice  was 
recognized  by  many  or  any  of  those  "whom  the  muddy  vesture 
of  jdecay  did  grossly  close,"  whether  they  perceived  or  not  that 
it  betokened  the  descent  of  the  Lord  from  Heaven.  What  he 
declares  is,  that  those  who  had  fallen  asleep  before  the  appear- 
ing of  our  Lord  upon  earth,  would  hear  his  voice  and  would  rise 


420  LECTURE    II. 

up  as  those  did  who  heard  it  in  the  days  of  His  humiliation  ;  not 
to  return,  as  they  did,  to  speak  and  walk  again  among  men,  but 
to  be  with  him  to  share  His  glory.  And  what  he  further  says  is, 
that  he  and  the  Thessalonians  who  had  not  fallen  asleep  before 
the  appearing  of  Christ  in  the  world,  who  had  survived  to  that 
great  day  of  the  Lord,  would  be  sharers  in  the  same  blessing, 
since  they  would  not  and  could  not  have  any  higher  one.  Only 
there  would  be  this  difference ;  since  Christ  had  died  and  was 
risen  again,  the  grave  could  no  longer  be  looked  upon  as  receiv- 
ing those  whom  Christ  had  redeemed.  Even  the  word  sleepy 
which  belonged  to  the  former  time,  would  not  be  applicable  to 
this.  The  departure  of  those  who  were  in  Christ,  would  be 
really  a  translation.  They  would  not  sink,  but  rise.  They  would 
not  go  down  to  meet  the  worms,  but  ascend  to  meet  Christ. 
The  phrase,  "meeting  the  Lord  in  the  air,"  seems  expressly  used 
to  discourage  the  carnal  notion  of  His  coming  down  as  an  earth- 
ly king,  to  reign  visibly  upon  earth.  The  translation  which  the 
Apostle  speaks  of,  was  an  object  of  faith,  not  of  sight.  The 
Thessalonians  were  not  called  to  imagine  that  He  would  be  in- 
vested with  the  purple  with  which  He  was  clothed  in  mockery 
upon  earth  ;  but  that  He  would  come  in  the  glory  with  which  he 
ascended,  in  the  glory  of  His  Father  and  the  holy  angels,  that 
those  who  had  shared  His  sufferings  might  partake  it  with  Him. 
I  have  said  that  this  very  literal  way  of  construing  the  Apos- 
tle's words,  the  most  literal  I  cart  conceive,  and  the  most  conso- 
nant with  the  rest  of  the  New  Testament,  must  have  conveyed 
great  consolation  to  the  Thessalonians,  and  may  convey  the  like 
to  us.  If  events  which  were  to  occur  very  soon,  bore  witness  to 
them  that  the  Lord  who  had  died  and  risen  again  was  actually 
present,  and  was  reigning  over  the  univ^»<^5e,  they  would  look 
upon  those  events,  however  portentous  in  themselves,  as  accom- 
plishing the  expectations  and  hopes  of  one  dispensation,  and  as 
inaugurating  a  new  and  higher  one.  They  would  look  upon 
those  events  as  denoting  a  crisis  in  the  history  of  the  universe, 
which  did  not  affect  only  or  chiefly  its  visible  conditions,  but  af- 
fected the  relations  between  those  who  were  still  and  those  who 


I.    AND    II.    EPISTLES    TO    THE    THESSALONIANS.         42 1 

had  been  upon  the  earth,  and  put  an  altogether  new  interpreta- 
tion upon  the  facts  of  earthly  life  and  earthly  death.  And  if  we 
had  courage  to  believe  that  what  St.  Paul  said  actually  came  to 
pass,  and  that  we  are  living  in  that  better  age  of  the  world  to 
which  he  was  looking  forward,  we  might  perhaps  claim  many 
privileges  as  our  possession,  v.'hich  we  suppose  may  be  ours  in  a 
distant  future  ;  we  might  think  that  much  more  has  been  done 
for  us  and  for  mankind,  than  we  have  at  all  dreamed  of ;  we 
might  look  forward  with  much  greater  confidence  to  that  which 
shall  be  done  when  the  mists  which  surround  us  are  scattered, 
and  we  are  able  to  walk  in  the  full  light  of  God's  countenance. 

But  to  realize  this  comfort,  we  must  heed,  as  carefully  as  the 
Thessalonians  were  called  upon  to  heed,  the  words  which  follow. 
"  But  concerning  the  times  and  the  seasons,  brethren,  ye  have  no 
need  that  it  should  be  written  to  you.  For  you  yourselves  per- 
fectly know  that  a  day  of  the  Lord  as  a  thief  at  night  so  cometh. 
When  they  say.  Peace  and  safety,  then  a  sudden  destruction  is 
standing  over  them  like  the  travail  to  a  woman  with  child.  But 
you,  brethren,  are  not  in  darkness  that  the  day  sliould  come 
upon  you  as  a  thief."  (Lachmann  has  "  thieves  ; "  a  very  tempt- 
ing alteration,  which  one  would  be  much  inclined  to  adopt  if  the 
previous  verse  did  not  seem  to  forbid  it,  and  if  it  were  not  too 
natural  a  substitute  for  the  common  reading.)  "  For  ye  are  all 
sons  of  light  and  sons  of  day.  We  are  not  of  night,  nor  of  dark- 
ness. Then  let  us  not  sleep,  as  the  rest.  But  let  us  watch  and 
be  sober.  For  they  that  sleep  sleep  by  night,  and  they  that  are 
drunkards  drink  by  night.  But  let  us,  being  of  the  day,  be 
sober,  having  put  upon  us  the  breastplate  of  faith  and  love,  and 
as  a  helmet  the  hope  of  salvation.  Because  God  hath  not  ap- 
pointed us  to  wrath,  but  unto  the  procuring  of  salvation,  through 
that  Lord  of  us,  Jesus  Christ,  Him  that  died  for  us  ;  that  whether 
we  wake  or  whether  we  sleep,  we  may  live  together  with  Him." 
Here  lay  the  grand  correction  of  their  irregular  practices,  as  well 
as  of  their  confused  belief.  The  day  of  the  Lord  presented 
itself  to  them  as  a  time  or  season  which  they  were  to  ascertain 
by  some  calculations, — calcul-ations  which,  though  the  prophets 


422  LECTURE    II. 

might  furnish  the  material  of  them,  were  pursued  upon  the  very- 
maxims  of  the  astrologers  and  soothsayers  whom  the  prophets 
denounced.  The  Apostle  v/as  not  desirous  to  make  them  doubt- 
ful that  the  day  was  at  hand,— that  they  were  on  the  eve  of  it, — 
nay,  that  they  were  in  it,  though  the  sun  might  not  yet  have 
reached  his  full  height  in  the  heavens.  But  this  confidence,  as 
well  as  all  the  hope  and  the  diligence  which  it  would  engender, 
— was  not  promoted  but  hindered  by  restless  speculations  about 
the  meaning  and  issue  of  particular  events,  or  the  accomplish- 
ment of  supposed  predictions.  When  St.  Paul  spoke  of  a  day,  he 
did  not  mean  a  day  of  twenty-four  hours,  but  a  day  as  opposed  to 
night,  light  as  opposed  to  darkness.  He  so  explains  his  meaning 
to  the  Romans  and  to  the  Corinthians — here  with  still  greater  min- 
uteness, on  account  of  the  particular  errors  which  he  had  to  encoun- 
ter. The  more  we  observe  his  language,  and  compare  it  with  that 
which  we  find  elsewhere,  the  more  we  perceive  with  what  divine 
skill  and  delicacy  he  is  opening  their  minds  to  a  deeper  perception 
of  the  truth  he  is  teaching,  while  he  is  giving  it  a  practical  force 
and  awfulness  which  in  their  hands  it  was  very  likely  to  lose. 
We  perceive  at  the  same  time,  how  much  all  his  corrections  of 
their  mistakes  are  united  with  the  encouragement,  not  the  dis- 
couragement, of  their  belief  and  of  their  hopes.  They  had  not 
thought  too  highly  of  their  present  jDOsition.  They  had  been  in- 
clined to  make  the  thought  of  a  future  time  an  excuse  for  dis- 
paraging it.  They  were  sons  of  the  light  and  of  the  day  then  ; 
they  were  not  to  become  so  afterwards.  But  they  were  to  expect 
blessings  which  they  had  not  received  :  they  were  to  look  for  a 
full  salvation  from  all  that  oppressed  and  crushed  them.  The 
hope  of  it  was  a  helmet,  the  best  protection  from  some  of  the 
most  perilous  and  deadly  assaults  of  their  enemy.  While  they 
cherished  it,  they  would  keep  themselves  awake  ;  if  they  lost  it, 
they  would  sink  into  sleep. 

The  exhortations  which  follow,  though  they  might  be  suitable 
to  any  Church,  have,  I  think,  a  peculiar  appropriateness  to  the 
circumstances  and  temper  of  this  one.  One  can  easily  imagine 
that  the  restlessness  of  speculation  about  the   coming  time,  and 


1.    AND    II.    EPISTLES    TO    THE    THESSALONIANS.         423 

the  advantage  which  it  gave  to  quick  and  clever  diviners  to 
exalt  their  own  auguries  above  homelier  and  more  practical 
teaching,  would  hinder  them  from  knowing  those  who  were 
laboring  among  them,  their  appointed  guides  and  counsellors, 
or  from  setting  much  store  by  their  quiet  labors  of  love.  And 
though  the  Apostle  has  borne  them  witness  that  there  was  bro- 
therly love  amongst  them,  the  peace  of  the  Church  must  have 
often  been  interrupted  by  rival  predictors.  A  certain  impatience 
of  government, — with  that  which  corresponds  to  it,  a  loss  of  the 
faculty  in  governing, — may  have  produced  many  unruly  spirits 
who  needed  to  be  admonished.  The  desponding  would  often 
be  left  without  comfort  by  those  who  were  busy  about  times  and 
seasons.  There  would  be  an  intolerance  of  the  weak,  and  that 
pride  of  half  knowledge  which  is  most  opposed  to  sympathy  and 
long  suffering.  There  might  be  some  particular  instance  of  re- 
venge or  of  bitterness  towards  those  who  were  without,  which 
led  to  the  warning  against  returning  evil  for  evil.  The  other  ex- 
hortation, "  Pursue  the  good  always  towards  one  another,  and 
towards  all,"  reminded  them  that  they  were  members  of  a  Church, 
a  body  of  witnesses  whose  conduct  towards  each  other  was  a 
testimony  to  the  world.  The  exhortations  to  "  rejoice  always," 
and  to  "  pray  without  ceasing,"  like  the  similar  ones  which  he 
addressed  to  the  Philippians — derive  a  new  force,  as  in  that 
case,  from  the  tribulations  to  which  both  were  exposed.  The 
command,  "  In  all  things  give  thanks,  for  this  is  the  will  of  God 
in  Christ  Jesus  unto  you,"  kept  them  in  mind  of  the  truth  which 
persecuted  men,  and  men  expecting  a  judgment  upon  others^ 
were  so  likely  to  forget,  that  the  Will  of  God  is  a  will  to  all  good, 
and  that  they  were  only  right  when  they  were  rejoicing  in  that 
will,  and  subjecting  their  own  to  it.  The  Thessalonians  might 
have  seemed  less  likely  than  others  to  quench  the  Spirit,  or 
despise  prophesyings  ;  but  the  Spirit  of  God  is  not  the  spirit  of 
divination,  and  prophecies  in  the  apostolical  sense  are  not  pre- 
dictions. Our  interpretations  have  cruelly  mangled  the  beauti- 
ful precepts  that  follow.  "  Prove  all  things.  Hold  on  to  the 
good.     Hold  off  from  every  form  of  evil."     For  we  have  incul- 


424  LECTURE    II. 

cated  a  doctrine, — exceedingl}^  in  accordance  with  our  cowardice 
and  feebleness,  utterly  adverse  and  contrary  to  the  teaching  and 
example  of  Christ  and  His  Apostles, — that  we  are  to  abstain 
from  all  that  appears  evil  in  the  sight  of  men.  He  had  bidden 
them  test  all  things,  to  see  what  they  were  good  for,  and  yet  they 
were  to  shrink  from  every  thing  that  looked  bad  to  those  who 
judged  according  to  the  appearance,  and  did  not  judge  right- 
eous judgment !  If  the  Apostle  had  so  preached  at  the  end  of 
an  epistle  specially  concerning  Cfirist's  day  and  Christ's  judg- 
ment, specially  exhorting  them  to  wait  for  t/iat^  the  contradiction 
would  have  been  flagrant  indeed.  But  he  is  guilty  of  no  such 
inconsistency.  He  winds  up  his  exhortations  with  a  prayer,  not 
that  they  may  abstain  from  the  things  which  appear  evil  to  those 
who  are  themselves  evil,  but  that  the  God  of  peace  would  make 
them  thoroughly  holy  and  perfect,  that  their  spirit  and  soul  and 
body,  as  one  entire  inheritance,  might  be  preserved  without 
blame  to  the  appearing  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 


No  one,  I  believe,  has  ever  doubted  the  connection  between 
the  two  Epistles  to  the  Thessalonians.  The  relation  between 
them  is  not  merely  like  that  between  the  two  to  tlie  Corinthians. 
The  subject  is  the  same  in  both,  and  the  second  is  commonly 
and  perhaps  rightly,  assumed  to  have  arisen  out  of  mistakes 
respecting  the  intention  of  the  first.  It  is  clear  from  the  opening 
of  the  Epistle  (the  part  of  it  included  in  our  first  chapter)  that 
the  tribulations  of  the  Thessalonians  had  continued  and  in- 
creased. St.  Paul  intimates  that  faith  and  patience  and  love 
were  also  increasing.  "An  evidence,"  he  says,  "of  the  right- 
eous judgment  of  God,  to  the  end  that  ye  may  be  made  worthy 
of  the  kingdom  of  God  ;  for  which  also  ye  are  suffering:  seeing 
that  it  is  a  righteous  thing  with  God  to  recompense  to  those  who 
trouble  you,  tribulation,  and  to  you  the  troubled,  rest  with  us  in 
the  unveiling  of  the  Lord  Jesus  from  heaven,  with  the  angels  of 
his  power,  in  the  flame  of  fire,  giving  out  recompense  to   them 


I.    AND    II.    EPISTLES    TO    THE    THESSALONIANS.       ,   425 

who  know  not  God,  and  to  them  who  do  not  obey  the  Gospel  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Who  shall  receive  the  judgment  of 
eternal  destruction  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord  and  from  the 
glory  of  his  power,  w^hen  he  shall  come  to  be  glorified  in  his 
saints,  and  to  be  wondered  at  by  all  who  believe ;  for  our  testi- 
mony to  you  was  believed  in  that  day."  I  have  extracted  this 
passage,  partly  that  the  reader  may  see  at  once  how  much  the 
Apostle  is  occupied  with  the  subject  of  a  coming  judgment,  in 
this  as  in  the  former  epistle  ;  secondly,  that  he  may  be  led  dili- 
gently to  consider  the  expressions  which  the  Apostle  uses  to 
to  describe  the  nature  of  this  judgment,  and  to  compare  them 
with  similar  expressions  in  other  parts  of  the  New  Testament. 
I  suppose  there  is  no  passage  which  would  be  so  readily  ac- 
cepted as  a  classical  and  a  cardinal  one  on  the  whole  question  of 
judgment  and  of  punishment.  Let  us  examine  it,  that  we  may, 
if  possible,  get  some  light  on  subjects  so  deeply  concerning  all 
men  in  all  ages. 

The  faith  and  patience  and  love  of  the  Thessalonians  were, 
the  Apostle  believed,  means  to  their  being  made  worthy,  or,  if 
we  follow  our  translation,  to  their  being  counted  worthy  of  the 
kingdom  of  God.  If  that  kingdom  of  God  is  the  kingdom  of 
righteousness  and  peace  and  joy,  patience  and  hope  ,and  love 
would  seem  to  be  the  instruments  whereby  it  is  enjoyed  or  in- 
herited, as  a  clear  eye  is  the  instrument  by  which  any  beautiful 
landscape  is  enjoyed  or  inherited.  So  our  Lord  had  taught  in 
the  Sermon  on  Mount.  The  poor  in  spirit  would  have  the  king- 
dom of  heaven,  the  pure  in  heart  would  see  God.  It  was  not 
they  would  be  paid  for  being  poor  in  spirit  or  being  pure  in 
heart  by  certain  gifts  in  a  future  world.  It  was  that  being  poor 
in  spirit,  they  would  not  crave  to  be  rulers  themselves,  but  would 
rejoice  to  have  the  true  Lord  for  the  ruler  of  their  hearts  ;  it  was 
that  the  light  which  was  in  them  not  being  darkened,  the  puri- 
fied man  would  be  able  to  know  Him  in  whom  he  was  living:  and 
moving  and  having  his  being.  The  righteous  judgment  of  God 
then,  which  the  Apostle  anticipates,  is  that  which  would  affirm 
who  were  living  as  children  and  citizens  of  God's  kingdom  ;  even 


426  LECTURE    11. 

as  also  the  righteous  judgment  which  he  anticipates  upon  the 
persecutors  is  that  which  is  the  opposite  of  rest,  the  trouble  and 
dismay  and  confusion  that  belong  to  those  who  have  sought  to 
exalt  themselves  aud  hav^e  trampled  upon  others.  "  In  the  reve- 
lation of  Jesus  Christ  with  His  angels  from  heaven,"  in  that 
great  day-light  of  the  universe  which  shall  show  all  things  as  they 
really  are,  there  will  be  recompense  to  those  who  have  not  known 
God,  and  who  do  not  obey  the  Gospel  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
And  this  recompense  he  describes  as  eternal  destruction  from 
the  face  of  the  Lord,  and  from  the  glory  of  His  power.  The  rec- 
ompense of  the  wicked  corresponds  exactly  to  that  of  the  right- 
eous. The  true  judgment  of  God  ascertains  the  condition  of 
both.  Each  obtains  what  he  is  seeking  after.  As  the  state  of 
knowing  God  and  being  like  Him  is  the  reward  of  the  one,  the 
state  of  not  knowing  Him  and  being  without  Him  is  the  punish- 
ment of  the  other.  This  is  called  seonian  or  eternal  destruction, 
the  most  awful  state  to  which  a  spiritual  being  can  be  reduced. 
We  are  not  told  how  long  or  how  short  a  time  that  destruction 
may  last.  Time,  I  conceive,  enters  as  little  into  the  question 
here  as  into  our  Lord's  discourse  in  the  twenty-fifth  chapter  of 
St.  Matthew.  In  one  and  the  other  the  language  denotes  a 
moral  condition  of  being.  In  one  passage  and  in  the  other  the 
revelation  or  unveiling  of  Christ  which  distinguishes  every  person 
and  declares  what  he  is,  is  described  as  that  which  separates 
those  on  the  right  hand  from  those  on  the  left.  Nor  must  it  be 
forgotten  that  this  judgment,  as  well,  I  conceive,  as  that  spoken 
of  in  the  twenty-fifth  chapter  of  St.  Matthew,  is  the  judgment 
which  was  to  wind  up  that  age  or  dispensation  of  the  world. 
Those  who  had  called  Jesus  a  blasphemer  because  He  said  He 
was  the  Son  of  God,  would  find  out  what  sort  of  being  they  had 
been  worshipping  under  the  name  of  God,  what  a  Being  they  had 
rejected  when  they  had  said  that  the  crucified  Man  was  not  His 
true  image.  And  what  other  blessing  could  a  faithful  man  de- 
sire than  to  see  in  that  crucified  Man  the  real  King  of  the  uni- 
verse, the  full  glory  of  the  Father,  St.  Paul  then,  while  he  cher- 
ishes the  faith  and  hope  of  the  Thessalonians  in  this   judgment 


I.    AND    11.    EPISTLES    TO    THE    THESSALONIANS.         42/ 

of  Christ,  gives  them  the  clearest  indication  of  what  was  to  be 
feared  and  what  was  to  be  hoped  in  that  judgment.  It  was  to 
be  desired  earnestly  because  it  was  true,  not  because  it  would 
favor  Christians  or  Jews  or  Gentiles.  It  was  to  be  desired,  be- 
cause it  would  bring  forth  the  true  image  of  God,  and  would 
confound  all  dark  and  false  and  hateful  images  of  Him  by  whom- 
soever, Jew,  heathen,  or  Christian,  they  were  set  up. 

And  now  on  the  strength  of   the   appearing  of  Christ,  and  of 
that  blessed  gathering  together  in  Him  which  was  the  realization 
and  fruition  of  their  life  as  members  of   a  Church,  he   conjures 
them    not  to   be    quickly  shaken,   or  agitated    in   mind,  either 
through  spirit  or  through  word  or  through  letter  as  coming  from 
him,  with  the  thought  that  the  day  of  the   Lord  was   coming 
instantly.     ''  Let  no  one,"  he  says,  "  deceive  you  in  any  wise,  be- 
cause it  will  not  come  unless  the  apostasy  come  first,  and  there 
be  revealed  the   man  of  sin,  he  that  is   the  adversary,  and  that 
lifts  himself  up  above   every  one  that  is  called  a  god,  and  above 
every  form  of  worship,  so  as  to  set  himself  in  the  temple  of  God, 
showing  that  he   is   God."     I  might  of  course  spend   pages  or 
volumes  upon   this  passage,  if   I  allowed  myself  to  travel  over 
eighteen   centuries  of  history,  and  to   inquire  which  of  all  the 
illustrious  names  that  occur  in  them  most  accords  with  this  de- 
scription, and  is  to  be  understood  as  fulfilling  it.     But  as  hitherto 
we  have  been  obliged,  by  reverence  for  the  Apostle's  words,  and 
for  the  harmony  of  the  Scriptures,  to  suppose  that  he  is  speaking 
of  events  which  were  to  take  place  in  his  own  day,  I  must  waive 
all   such   questions,  and  only  try  to   ascertain  from  this   passage 
itself,  what  kind  of  manifestation  it  is  which  is  spoken  of.    Then 
perhaps  we  shall  be  better  judges   of  any  historical  facts  which 
answered  to   the  words  at  that  time  ;  and  we  may  be  able  here- 
after to  deal  fairly  not  with  one,  but  with  all,  the  different  alleged 
fulfilments  of  them  in  subsequent  times. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  then,  I  think,— indeed  very  few  have 
doubted,— that  we  have  here  the  description  of  the  appearing  of 
an  Antichrist,  in  anticipation  of  that  appearance  of  the  Christ, 
whereof   St.    Paul   has  been   speaking   so   much.      Whatever   is 


428  ^  LECTURE    II. 

opposed  to  the  lowliness  of  the  Son  of  Man,  to  the  character  of 
the  King  who  came  meek  and  sitting  upon  an  ass,  to  His  acts 
who  ministered  to  others  instead  of  being  ministered  to  himself, 
to  Him  who  gave  Himself  for  the  world,  is  gathered  up  and 
concentrated  in  these  sentences.  The  man  of  sin  is  opposed  to 
the  Lord  our  Righteousness  ;  the  son  of  perdition  to  the  Saviour ; 
he  who  sets  himself  up  above  every  thing  that  is  called  God,  to 
Him  who  humbled  Himself  and  became  of  no  reputation  ;  he  who 
sits  in  the  temple  of  God,  showing  himself  as  God,  to  Him  who 
said,  "Father,  not  my  will  but  Thine  be  done."  It  is  also  clear, 
I  think,  that  a  power  is  described  to  us  which  claims  dominion 
both  over  the  Gentile  and  the  Jewish  world,  exalting  itself  above 
every  form  of  worship  in  the  first,  proclaiming  its  superiority  to 
the  one  Jehovah  of  the  other.  The  word  apostasy,  as  I  have 
already  intimated,  would  appear  to  import  a  reverence  paid  to 
this  power  not  by  Jews  and  heathens  onl}',  but  by  the  professed 
disciples  of  Jesus.  Now  as  the  Divus  Imperator  was  always 
striving  to  set  himself  above  all  that  is  called  God,  to  claim  all 
the  gods  and  worships  of  the  empire  as  his  tributaries,  as  there 
was  much  that  resisted  this  tendency  in  the  old  laws  and  faith 
of  the  Roman  state,  as  the  temple  of  Jerusalem  was  the  one 
great  abiding  witness  against  it,  as  every  holy  man  who  upheld 
the  true  worship  of  that  temple  w^as  in  his  own  person  a  check 
upon  this  last  consummation  of  human  or  rather  of  brute  worship, 
I  conceive  that  the  whole  period  from  the  reign  of  Augustus 
downward  was  an  approximation  to  the  accomplishment  of  this 
antichristian  idea,  but  that  it  never  was  embodied  even  in  the 
person  of  Nero.  It  is  no  new  theory  of  mine,  but  one  which 
biblical  scholars  have  oftentimes  suggested,  that  Vitellius  exhibits 
all  the  characteristics  which  are  here  presented  to  us.  It  will 
be  a  fitter  opportunity  to  consider  that  opinion  when  we  ex- 
amine the  Apocalypse.  I  do  not  ask  any  one  to  accept  it,  or 
even  pledge  myself  to  it.  I  feel  the  doubtfulness  even  of  the 
best  of  such  identifications,  in  proportion  as  I  feel  the  truth 
and  certainty  of  the  Apostle's  assertion,  that  such  a  power  did 
exist,  that  it  had  not  yet  reached  its  fullest,  worst,  development. 


T.    AND    II.    EPISTLES    TO    THE    THESSALONIANS.         429 

He   asks   the  Thessalonians  whether   they  do   not  remember 
that  he  told  them  these  things  when  he  was  yet  with  them.     The 
special   opposition  which  they  encountered  from  the  Jews   made 
such  teaching,  as  I  hinted  before,  more   needful   for   them   than 
for  others.     He  could  not  tell  them  that  Jesus  was  the  Christ  or 
that  He  would  be  manifested  as  the  Christ,  without  telling  them 
what  a  different  and   contrary  idea  of  a  Christ  there  was   in  the 
world,  and  how  the  world  in  all  its  different  sections  would  at  last 
find  some  representative  of  that  idea.     He  says   that  they  knew 
also   what   the   restraining   influence   was,  which   prevented  this 
mystery   of   iniquity  from    coming  at   once   and  fully  into  light. 
Afterwards   he  seems  to   speak  of  this  restraining  influence  as 
being  in  a  person,  "  He  that  lets  will  let  till  he  be   taken  out  of 
the  way."  Considering  that  the   Apostle  must  have  looked  for 
the  great  divine  centre  of  resistance  to  the  antichristian  prin- 
ciple  in  Jerusalem,  considering  that  he   must  have  felt  that  the 
Pharisees   and  Sadduces  of  that  city  were  more  possessed  and 
penetrated  by  it  than  any  worshipper  of  Jupiter,  it  seems  not  an 
unreasonable  supposition,  which  many  have  entertained,  that  he 
supposed  the  restraining  power  to  lie  in  the  church  at  Jerusalem, 
and  most  especially  in  the   Apostle  James.     The  effects  of  his 
"being  taken  out  of  the  way"  upon  the  city  itself,  all  the  parties 
in  which  reverenced  his  righteousness,— and  still  more  upon  the 
Church  itself,— would  answer  very  strikingly  to  the  words  of  the 
brother-apostle  who  is  so   often  represented  as  his  rival.     When 
that  great  impediment  was  removed,  it  would  seem  as  if  the  mys- 
tery of  iniquity,  which  had  been  so   long  at  work  did  come  forth 
most  mightily  where  it  might  least  have  been  looked  for,  and  as 
if  nothing  but   the  destruction  of  the   city  and  the  temple  (so 
nearly  contemporaneous  with  the  destruction  of  the  Capitol,  with 
the  downfall  of  Vitellius,   and   the  commencement,   if  not  the 
establishment,  of  a  better  era)  could  have  prevented  the  hideous 
and  godless  tyranny,— sustained  as  it  was  by  all  signs  and  lying 
wonders,  by  all  deceivableness  of  unrighteousness,  by  the   tricks 
©fthe   diviner  and  enchanter,— from   permanently  establishing 
itself  over  the   world.     The   overthrow  of  such  a  power  would 


430  LECTURE     II. 

have  seemed  to  the  prophets  of  the  old  world  a  day  of  the  Lord 
indeed,  immeasurably  more  wonderful,  more  pregnant,  more  a 
pledge  of  future  blessings,  than  the  downfall  of  Sennacherib  or 
Belshazzar.  But  when  it  was  connected  with  the  incarnation, 
the  death,  and  the  resurrection  of  the  Son  of  Man,  it  could  be 
looked  upon  as  nothing  else  than  His  appearance  to  claim  the 
kingdom  which  He  had  proved  to  be  His  Father's  and  which  the 
power  of  evil  was  seeking  to  wrest  from  Him. 

On  this  firm  ground,  the  Apostle  can  raise  thanksgivings  to 
God  and  arguments  to  his  converts  as  earnest  as  those  in  the 
first  letter.  His  thanksgiving  is  that  God  has  chosen  them  as  a 
first-fruit  unto  salvation  by  sanctification  of  the  Spirit  and  belief 
of  the  truth.  His  prayer  is  that  God  would  comfort  their  hearts 
and  strengthen  them  in  every  good  word  and  work.  His  entreaty, 
which  might  be  a  command,  is,  that  they  would  keep  the  rules 
he  has  given  them,  and  that  they  would  separate  themselves  from 
every  brother  who  walked  disorderly.  He  explains  his  words, 
by  bringing  out  more  distinctly  the  charge  which  he  had  hinted 
at  before,  that  there  were  some  who  were  not  workers,  but  over- 
workers,  or  as  we  say,  busybodies.  "  If  a  man  will  not  work, 
neither  let  him  eat,"  is  the  Apostle's  rule,  which  he  had  first 
illustrated  by  his  example.  He  will  have  no  trifling  or  equivo- 
cation in  this  matter,  no  fine  dainty  saints  who  are  so  busy  with 
their  spirits  that  they  have  not  time  to  fulfil  their  proper  manual 
callings,  no  waiters  for  the  Lord  who  will  not  do  what  the  Lord 
commands  them.  There  must  be  discipline,  he  says,  especially 
with  such  persons ;  only  they  must  not  be  treated  as  enemies, 
but  warned  as  brothers.  And  then  he  beseeches  the  Lord  of 
peace  to  give  them  peace  always  in  every  place,  and  he  prays 
that  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  might  be  with  them  all. 


THE  PASTORAL  EPISTLES, 


The  same  kind  of  objection  which  has  been  raised  against  the 
Epistle  to  the  Colossians  has  been  appHed  also  to  these  epistles. 
In  the  case  of  the  Epistle  to  Timothy,  the  very  objection  which 
I  considered,  as  to  the  antedating  of  Gnosticism,  is  urged  with 
even  greater  plausibility.  But  the  similar  objection,  that  these 
epistles  suppose  an  organization  of  the  Church  which  did  not 
exist  till  a  period  after  the  death  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  bears  upon 
them  in  their  common  character  of  pastoral  letters,  and  affects, 
in  a  much  less  degree,  those  which  are  addressed  to  the  different 
societies  in  Italy,  Greece  or  Asia. 

The  subject  is  a  very  interesting  one,  and  I  should  be  forget- 
ting the  purpose  of  these  lectures  if  I  passed  it  over.  There  is, 
I  conceive,  the  best  possible  ground  for  the  assertion,  that  the 
nature  of  the  Church  in  the  Apostle's  days  ought  not  to  be 
deduced  from  what  we  read  of  the  Church,  even  at  the  com- 
mencemejit  of  the  second  century.  For  instance,  it  would  be  the 
greatest  possible  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  feelings  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  under  the  worst  of  its  rulers,  were  as  adverse  to 
the  Christians  in  the  first  period  as  they  were  under  the  very 
best  in  the  subsequent  period.  Nero  did  not  treat  the  Christians 
more  cruelly  than  he  treated  his  other  subjects.  It  was  by 
accident,  or  impulse,  or  for  a  motive  of  temporary  convenience, 
that  he  persecuted  them  at  all.  Trajan  persecuted  them  upon 
principle,  in  conformity  with  the  very  same  policy  which  made 
him  benignant  to  his  subjects  generally.  This  is  an  amazing 
difference,  which  presupposes  the  existence  of  other  differences. 


432  LECTURE    II. 

Since  it  was  tlie  organization  of  the  Church  in  the  great  cities 
of  the  empire  which  alarmed  intelh'gent  rulers  like  Trajan  or 
Marcus  Aurelius,  there  is  abundant  excuse  for  imagining  that 
such  an  organization  was  wanting  in  the  earlier  time.  And  this 
opinion  is  strengthened  in  many  minds  by  the  observation,  that 
so  little  is  said  in  the  canonical  epistles  of  that  which  seemed 
the  most  conspicuous  feature  of  the  Christian  society  afterwards. 
"  Though  the  names  of  bishops,  or  presbyters,  or  deacons,  occur 
here  and  there  in  the  letters  to  the  Churches,  yet  how  accidental 
the  introduction  of  them  appears  to  be  ;  how  little  the  doctrinal 
or  even  the  practical  part  of  the  epistle  would  seem  to  be  affect- 
ed by  their  presence  or  their  absence  ;  how  easy  therefore  it  is 
to  suppose  that  they  have  been  introduced  at  a  later  time  when 
they  were  felt  to  be  indispensable  to  the  very  existence  of  the 
Church  !  If  they  put  themselves  much  more  distinctly  and 
prominently  forward  in  these  letters,  is  not  that  a  reason  for 
suspecting  them  to  be  spurious  ?  " 

Supposing  the  conclusion  we  arrived  at  in  considering  the 
Epistle  to  the  Thessalonians  to  be  the  true  one,  we  must  cer- 
tainly expect  to  see  the  Church  standing  forth  much  more  sub- 
stantively in  the  age  that  was  coming,  after  the  great  crisis  of 
which  the  Apostle  speaks,  than  in  the  previous  time.  And  if  we 
consider  the  nature  of  that  crisis,  the  reason  is  evident.  That 
national  organization  which  the  Jew  regarded  as  sacred  and 
divine,  the  central  organization  of  the  world,  was  to  be  shaken 
and  broken  up.  The  expectation  was  that  the  Church  would 
emerge  out  of  this  wreck  and  chaos,  to  be  the  beginning  and 
root  of  a  new  human  community.  Only  when  it  took  this  form, 
would  it  be  the  completely  developed  society,  of  which  the 
society  that  grew  up  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  was  the  germ  ; 
only  then  could  it  be  felt  as  a  really  rival  kingdom  by  the  world 
which  the  Caesars  ruled.  Before  that  time,  it  was  still  in  the 
eyes  of  Romans  one  of  the  Jewish  sects.  In  that  character  the 
opposing  Jews  were  always  seeking  to  represent  it.  And  how 
would  it  seem  to  the  members  of  the  Church  themselves,  to  their 
teachers,  and  to  the  Apostles  1     We  have  seen  that  it  is  not  easy 


THE    PASTORAL    EPISTLES.  433 

to  give  a  single  answer  to  this  question.     The  answer  comes  out 
gra'dually   in  different  aspects,     St.  James   and  St.  Peter  were 
most  anxious  to  recognize   the  old  organization  of   the  Jewish 
people,  to  speak  of  the  twelve  tribes,  to   make  their  countrymen 
conscious  of  their  peculiar  calling,  to  present  Christ  as    the  son 
of  David,  who  was   come  to   gather  them  in  one,  however    they 
might  be   dispersed  among  the   Gentiles.      These  Apostles  of 
the  circumcision  would  of  course  be  reluctant  by  any  means   to 
convey  the  impression  that  they  were  setting  up  a  society.    They 
wished  only  to  be  a  body  of  witnesses  for  the  true   Lord  of  the 
society  to  which  they  did  belong,  and  of  which  they  rejoiced  to 
think  themselves  members.     Still  they  were  a  body  of  witnesses. 
They  had  need  of  ministers   to   do   their  work.     Deacons  were 
chosen  to  meet  a  new  necessity.     The   apostles  held  the  office 
which  had  been  given   them  by  Christ.     The   old   forms  of  the 
Jewish  commonwealth,  reviving   and  recovering  their  old   family 
character,    suggested    the  position  of    the    Elders.      When  an 
ecdesia,  consisting   of  Jews  and   Gentiles,  grew  up  in  the  cities 
which   St.  Paul   visited,  all  different  functions  and  gifts,  as   wc 
find  in  the  Epistles  to  the  Corinthians  and  Ephesians,  appeared, 
and  were  referred  to   the   one  Lord  and  the   one  Spirit.     What- 
ever was  necessary  to  a  body  politic  was  found  in  each  of  these 
bodies.     And  St.  Paul  was  careful  to   remind  each  of  them,  that 
it  was  a  divine  society  called  out  by  God  Himself,  not  one  which 
he  had  constructed  or  could  organize.  In  these,  as  in  the  Church 
of  Jerusalem,  we   hear  of  the   Elder  and  of  the   Deacon.     But 
their  existence  is  taken  for  granted.     No  formal  account  is  given 
of  their  creation.     They  have  unfolded  themselves  like  any  trees 
or  flowers  in  the   outward  world.     They  have   not  been  put  into 
the  society,  according  to  any  plan  or  paper  constitution.     The 
other  name   of  "Overseers,"  which  becomes  so  important  after- 
wards,   stands    out    with    no    formality    or    distinctness    in    the 
Ecclesiastical  Epistles.     The  name  itself  is  pregnant  with  mean- 
ing ;  but  the  meaning  is  not  brought  out.     We  feel  that  we  are 
in  an  order  ;  but  an  order  that  is  in  the  midst  of  another,  which 
it  is  not  vet  in  a  condition  to  displace,  and  which,  till  it  perishes 

28 


434  LECTURE     II. 

by  God's  decree,  is  dear  and  venerable  in  the  eyes  of  the  x\postle 
of  the  Gentiles,  as  well  as  of  the  Apostles  of  the  circumsision. 

The  conclusion  then  to  which  I  come,  is  this.  There  is 
nothing  in  the  Epistles  to  the  Churches,  and  I  think  we  shall 
find  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  pastoral  Epistles,  which  antici- 
pates the  existence  of  that  complete  and  expanded  society  which 
we  meet  with,  after  the  Apostles  have  left  the  earth.  But  there  are 
all  the  seeds  and  preparations  for  that  developed  order,  just  as 
we  found  the  seeds  of  the  different  kinds  of  Gnoticism  that 
were  afterwards  developed,  at  Colosse.  The  pastoral  Epistles 
carry  us  a  step  farther  than  the  Ecclesiastical  Epistles  in  the 
history  of  the  Church's  constitution.  But  it  is  just  such  a  step 
as  is  made  necessary  by  what  we  read  there,  just  such  a  step  as 
makes  the  facts  which  we  read  of  in  the  second  century,  not 
incredible  or  unintelligible. 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    TIMOTHY.  435 


FIRST  EPISTLE  TO  TIMOTHY. 

It  is  generally  admitted  that  the  Overseer  and  the  Elder  are 
not  distinguished  with  an}^  accuracy  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
or  in  the  Ecclesiastical  Epistles.  But  when  a  certain  person  is 
left  to  watch  over  the  affairs  of  the  Church,  we  feel  at  once  that 
the  first  name  has  an  appropriateness  to  his  function  which  the 
other  clearly  has  not.  Without  assuming  that  the  Elder  had 
necessarily  any  connection  with  age,  we  may  at  least  take  it  for 
granted  that  a  young  man  like  Timothy  would  not  have  borne 
that  name,  in  a  Church  to  which  he  locally  belonged.  At  the 
same  time,  the  opening  of  this  Epistle  affords  the  clearest 
evidence  in  support  of  the  remark  which  I  made  just  now,  that 
the  offices  in  the  Church  evolved  themselves  by  a  divine  law,  not 
in  obedience  to  an  artificial  rule. 

The  Apostle  is  on  his  way  from  Ephesus  to  Macedonia.  He 
perceives,  in  the  Church  at  Ephesus,  certain  persons  who  are  in- 
troducing strange  doctrines,  who  are  giving  heed  to  fables  and 
interminable  genealogies  which  awaken  disputations.  He  de- 
sires Timothy  to  remain  that  he  may  warn  these  men  of  the  mis- 
chief of  which  they  are  likely  to  be  the  cause.  Here  we  have  at 
once  the  indication,  in  a  particular  case,  how  the  need  of  a 
Christian  overseer  might  arise.  Starting  from  this  point  we  may 
expect  to  learn  by  degrees  what  other  duties  devolve  upon  him, 
what  else  is  implied  in  his  office. 

The  phrase  "  interminable  genealogies  "  has  been  supposed 
to  lead  us  to  a  step  further  into  the  history  of  Gnosticism,  than 
we  advanced  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians.  The  descent  of 
the  different  aeons  and  their  spiritual  relationships  to  each  other, 
form  so  conspicuous  a  part  of  the  heresies  of  the  second  cen- 
tury, that  we  assume  at  once  that  they  must  be  pointed  'at  here. 
The  opinion  seems  to  me  not  an  unreasonable  one.  But  the 
language  of  tlae  Apostle  in  the  context  obliges  us  to  check  and 
qualify  it.     These  genealogists  were   evidently  Jews,  men   who 


436  LECTURE    II. 

set  great  store  by  the  law.  If  they  owed  any  thing  to  Persian  or 
Greek  teachers,  that  lore  was  entirely  subordinate  to  what  they 
received  from  the  Hebrew  sages.  We  should  then,  I  think,  in- 
terpret the  words  rather  by  what  we  know  of  Jewish  conceits 
concerning  angels  and  archangels,  than  by  what  we  read  of 
Gnostics  in  Tertullian  or  Irenaeus.  Possibly  we  may  hereafter 
find  it  needful  to  make  much  more  account  of  the  Jewish  ele- 
ment in  Gnosticism,  than  some  modern  ecclesiastical  historians 
are  inclined  to  do.  But  at  all  events  the  persons  whom  St. 
Paul  set  Timothy  to  control,  were  men  who  substituted  law  for 
Gospel,  and  thereby,  as  St.  Paul  tells  him,  "  hindered  that  which 
is  the  true  end  and  issue  of  the  commandment,  love  out  of  a]3ure 
heart,  and  a  good  conscience,  and  faith  unfeigned." 

The  words  which  we  translate,  "godly  edifying  which  is  in 
faith,"  are  made  rather  more  difficult  by  Lachmann,  who  reads 
oix<r^o/j.ta^^  instead  of  oUi/do/ua'^.  But  either  reading,  Lachmann's 
perhaps  even  more  than  the  ordinary  one,  suggests  a  valuable 
hint  as  to  the  character  of  Timothy's  office,  which  is  abundantly 
borne  out  by  the  rest  of  the  Epistle.  The  preservation  of  the 
order  of  the  Church,  of  all  that  conduced  to  the  true  fellowship 
of  its  members,  was  to  be  his  first  and  his  special  object.  He 
was  to  understand  distinctions,  that  he  might  be  a  preserver  of 
unity  ;  to  hinder  notions  from  substituting  themselves  for  belief 
and  action  ;  for  that  end  to  detect  what  is  true  in  each  notion, 
that  the  assumption  and  exclusiveness  which  made  it  false  might 
be  rejected.  The  great  cardinal  opposition  of  Law  and  Gospel 
immediately  supplies  the  instance  and  the  test.  "  The  Taw  is 
good,  if  a  man  use  it  lawfully."  But  the  Law  is  for  the  coercion 
and  condemnation  of  crimes  which  counteract  and  oppose  the 
healthful  doctrine  of  the  Gospel  of  the  glory  of  God,  with  which 
the  Apostle  felt  that  he  had  been  entrusted.  To  substitute  the 
mere  denunciation  and  prohibition  of  evil  for  the  power  by  which 
men  are  delivered  from  it,  the  righteousness  of  letters  for  the 
righteousness  of  a  Person,  the  righteousness  which  merely  con- 
demns the  sinner  for  the  righteousness  which  saves  him  out  of 
sin,  is  to  destroy  the  life  of  the  Church  as  well  as  the  life  of  the 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    TIMOTHY.  437 

individual.     He  who  truly  watches  over  one,  will  be  also  the  pro- 
tector of  the  other. 

Then  after  the  assertion  of  this  great  theological  principle, 
which  Timothy  is  always  to  keep  in  sight,  comes  in  one  of  those 
passages  of  personal  feeling  and  thanksgiving  which  seem  at 
first  to  break  the  tenor  of  the  discourse,  but  which  afterwards  we 
find  have  done  more  to  bring  out  the  meaning  of  it,  than  the 
most  apparent  logical  sequence  could  have  done.  He  "  thanks 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  has  enabled  him  for  the  ministry  into 
which  He  put  him,  having  judged  him  faithful ;  him  that  was 
before  a  blasphemer,  and  a  persecutor,  and  injurious."  Why 
should  these  words  come  in  here,  more  than  anywhere  else  ? 
Why  should  he  speak  of  his  receiving  mercy  because  he  did  it 
ignorantly  in  unbelief?  Why  should  he  say  that  the  grace  of 
our  Lord  had  abounded  with  the  faith  and  love  that  is  in  Christ 
Jesus  ?  Why  should  he  add  the  saying,  apparently  more  needful 
for  a  young  convert  than  for  a  bishop,  "  Faithful  is  the  word,  and 
worthy  of  universal  acceptation,  that  Christ  Jesus  came  into  the 
world  to  save  sinners,  of  whom  I  am  first?  "  Why,  but  because 
in  this  way  he  brings  out  most  remarkably  the  inefficiency  of  the 
Law,  to  raise  a  man  who  followed  its  precepts  most  diligently, 
out  of  the  most  evil  and  godless  habits  of  mind,  to  which  he 
yielded  through  his  very  zeal  for  its  authority  ?  Why,  but  be- 
cause he  would  show  the  power  of  the  Gospel  to  do  that  for  him 
which  the  Law  could  not  do  ?  Why,  but  because  he  would  pro- 
claim to  the  whole  body  of  sinners,  the  blessings  to  which  he  felt 
that  he  had  no  right  but  as  a  sinner  ?  And  so  the  words  that 
follow,  "  But  on  this  account  I  found  mercy,  that  in  me  first 
Christ  Jesus  might  show  forth  all  longsuffering  for  a  pattern  to 
them  that  should  hereafter  believe  on  Him  unto  life  eternal," 
acquire  their  full  force.  He  himself  is  at  once  the  sign  to  the 
most  hard-hearted  legalist,  and  the  most  corrupt  Gentile,  of  the 
power  which  there  is  in  Christ  to  raise  them  out  of  both  con- 
ditions, to  endue  them  with  a  faith  and  love  which  is  in  Himself, 
and  so  to  bring  them  to  that  life  eternal,  which  men  crave  for, 
and  which  they  find  in  Him.     And  I  know  not  whether  it  is  an 


438  LECTURE    II. 

over-refinement  to  think  that  both  in  the  use  of  these  words, 
"  eternal  life,"  and  in  the  ascription  which  follows,  "  to  the  King 
of  the  ^ons,  to  the  incorruptible,  unseen,  only  God.  honor  and 
glory  for  the  aeons  out  of  aeons.  Amen,"  there  is  a  silent  allusion 
to  the  opinions  which  were  beginning  to  connect  themselves  with 
these  words  in  the  Church,  and  at  the  same  time  a  striking  tes- 
timony against  them,  inasmuch  as  the  Apostle  draws  away  all 
thoughts  both  from  periods  and  from  spiritual  beings,  to  the  one 
original  ground  of  both.  Be  that  as  it  may,  the  commission  to 
Timothy  evidently  rests  upon  this  Gospel  and  the  relation  be- 
tween it  and  the  law,  as  it  was  made  necessary  by  the  confused 
teaching  of  Rabbinical  speculators  and  allegorists.  The  words, 
"  according  to  the  prophecies  which  went  before  on  thee  " — or 
rather  that  were  leading  or  pointing  to  thee — seem  to  express 
clearly  that  the  Apostle  was  not  exercising  an  arbitrary  judg- 
ment in  the  choice  of  his  delegate,  but  was  conforming  himself 
to  indications  and  admonitions  which,  in  the  case  of  every  man 
if  he  will  look  for  them,  declare  what  he  is  intended  for,  and 
which  an  Apostle  could  never  regard  as  otherwise  than  divine. 
I  cannot  tell  how  to  explain  the  words,  "  in  them  "  which  oc- 
cur in  the  next  sentence.  They  may  possibly  signify  that  Tim- 
othv  should  carry  on  his  warfare  in  the  recollection  of  those 
warnings  and  fore-showings  of  his  vocation  ;  that  he  would  need 
them  when  his  belief  of  it  was  growing  weak.  But  at  any  rate 
the  words  will  signify  that  his  life  in  himself  and  in  the  Church 
could  be  nothing  else  than  a  fight,  and  that  the  fight  would  be 
victorious,  if  he  put  on  the  armor  of  faith  and  of  a  good  con- 
science, one  of  which  he  intimates  is  necessary  to  the  security 
and  preservation  of  the  other.  He  had  perceived  a  tendency  to 
separate  them,  growing  up  in  the  Church.  Hymenaeus  and  Alex- 
ander had  neglected  to  keep  a  clear  conscience  ;  therefore  their 
faith  had  run  aground,  and  they  had  been  shipwrecked.  He  had 
delivered  them  to  Satan  (using  the  same  formula,  doubtless  with 
precisely  the  same  meaning,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Corinthian  of- 
fender), not  in  this  case  or  in  any  other  that  they  might  be  ex- 
eluded  from  the  kingdom  of  Heaven,  but  that  they  might  be 
taught  not  to  blaspheme. 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    TIMOTHY.  439 

Our  second  chapter  opens  with  hints  respecting  the  order  of  a 
Church.  Nothing  is  more  worthy  of  note  than  the  Apostle's 
primary  exhortation  to  Timothy  on  this  subject :  "  I  exhort  then 
first  of  all  that  there  be  made  petitions,  supplications,  thanksgiv- 
ings for  all  men."  The  ground  of  the  Church's  order  is  laid  in  these 
supplications.  He  who  is  left  expressly  at  Ephesus  to  watch 
against  strange  doctrines,  is  yet  bidden  "  first  of  all  "  to  see  that 
prayers  be  made  for  all  men.  If  the  Apostle's  end  had  been 
only  to  prevent  the  incursions  of  Gnoticism,  no  diviner  means 
than  this  could  have  been  conceived.  For  Gnosticism  is,  in  its 
very  nature,  separating  and  exclusive,  busy  in  dividing  the  initi- 
ated believer  from  the  ordinary  Christian  and  man.  But  as  the 
Apostle's  zeal  against  the  innovating  teachers  was  altogether  sub- 
ordinate to  the  purpose  of  asserting  the  truth  of  the  Gospel  and 
the  existence  of  the  divine  kingdom,  we  cannot  assign  any  lower 
ground  for  this  command  and  for  the  prominence  which  he  gives 
to  it,  than  that  he  looked  upon  common  and  united  prayer  for  all 
men  as  the  very  expression  of  the  Church's  mind,  the  sign  of  its 
vocation,  the  mode  by  which  its  triumphs  were  to  be  eiTected. 
He  adds,  "  For  kings  and  all  those  in  authority,  so  that  we  may 
lead  a  quiet  and  peaceable  life  in  all  piety  and  reverence."  But 
lest  this  explanation  of  the  prayer  should  be  mistaken  for  the 
reason  and  ground  of  it, — lest  Christians  should  suppose  that 
they  were  praying  for  Nero  in  order  to  disarm  his  hostility 
against  them,  or  to  procure  themselves  an  immunity  from  the 
miseries  which  he  was  inflicting  upon  the  world, — the  Apostle 
adds  immediately,  "  For  this  is  good  and  acceptable  in  the  sight 
of  our  Saviour  God,  who  willeth  all  men  to  be  saved,  and  to  come 
to  a  knowledge  of  the  truth."  A  most  wonderful  and  startling 
assertion,  the  strangeness  of  which  we  can  hardly  appreciate. 
You  are  to  pray  for  all  men  ;  you  are  to  pray  for  the  worst  man, 
the  greatest  tyrant ;  for  this  is — not  proper  and  decorous  in  the 
sight  of  men,  but — good  and  acceptable  in  the  sight  of  God,  who 
hates  all  mere  appearances  and  proprieties  ;  because  it  is  His 
will  that  all  men  should  be  saved,  and  should  come  to  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  truth.     He  must  mean  that  the  prayers  of  a  Church, 


440  LECTURE    II. 

and  therefore  the  life  of  a  Church, — which  depends  on  its  pray- 
ers, which  is  realized  in  its  prayers, — are  possible  only  while  it 
acknowledges  a  Will  to  good,  a  Will  to  salvation  which  goes 
down  deeper  than  any  thing  Christians  can  think  or  imagine, 
which  is  so  profound,  that  we  are  bound  to  suppose  the  whole 
world,  and  the  very  worst  man  in  it,  to  be  an  object  of  the  divine 
care  and  interest,  and  therefore  a  fit  object  for  the  care  and 
interest  of  those  whose  wills  are  seeking  to  be  in  conform- 
ity with  His.  And  lest  it  should  be  supposed  that  this  Will  of 
God  was  some  other  than  that  which  Paul  had  been  proclaim- 
ing in  his  Gospel,  he  adds,  "  For  there  is  one  God,  one  Medi- 
ator also  of  God  and  men,  the  Man  Christ  Jesus,  He  that  hath 
given  Himself  a  ransom  for  all  (the  testimony  to  be  made  in  its 
own  times,  or,  as  our  translators  render  it,  "  to  be  testified  in  due 
time  ")  ;  unto  which  have  I  been  appointed  a  herald  and  an 
apostle.  I  say  truth,  I  do  not  lie,  a  teacher  of  nations  in  faith 
and  truth."  That  Will  of  God  then  that  all  men  should  be  saved, 
is  the  Will  that  is  revealed  in  the  one  Mediator  Jesus  Christ. 
When  we  speak  of  Him  as  a  Mediator  or  a  ransom,  we  speak  of 
this  or  we  speak  of  nothing.  He  is  a  ransom  for  all,  or  He  is  a 
ransom  for  none.  If  any  person  is  excluded,  the  Incarnation 
and  the  Sacrifice  mean  nothing  :  there  is  no  Gospel  from  heaven 
to  earth.  Therefore  the  Apostle  speaks  in  that  vehement  way, 
to  which  all  who  know  his  style  are  aware  that  he  resorts  only 
when  some  great  cardinal  point  is  at  stake,  when  the  matter  at 
issue  is  one  of  life  and  death.  He  avers,  he  swears,  that  he  is 
not  a  liar,  but  a  truth  speaker,  when  he  says  that  this,  even  this 
Gospel,  so  contrary  to  all  the  narrow  notions  of  men,  so  utterly 
outrageous  to  the  pride  of  Jews  and  of  Christians,  is  the  glad 
tidings  with  which  he  has  been  entrusted,  that  if  he  may  not  say 
this,  he  is  not  a  teacher  of  the  Gentiles  at  all.  Such  language 
is  not  new  to  us.  We  have  found  it  in  every  Epistle.  But  here 
it  comes  out  more  broadly  and  distinctly  than  in  almost  any  other 
place,  because  he  would  have  Timothy  understand  that  if  he 
does  not  set  forth  this  as  the  ground  of  the  acts  and  life  of  the 
Ephesian  Church,  he  will  be  failing  in  his  office,  he  will  not  be 
a  true  overseer. 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    TIMOTHY.  44I 

And  then  he  goes  on  to  exhibit  this  united  prayer,  as  that  which 
is  to  preserve  the  men  and  the  women  of  the  Church  in  their 
proper  relation  to  each  other,  uniting  them  together  in  Christ, 
but  yet  teaching  them  the  Divine  and  original  distinction  be- 
tween them,  the  subordination  which  is  due  from  the  weaker  to 
the  stronger.  He  wills  "  that  the  men  pray  in  every  place,  lift- 
ing up  holy  hands  without  wrath  and  disputation  ; "  these  being 
their  special  temptations — springing  up  as  readily  in  the  Church 
as  in  the  world,  from  questions  of  theology  as  from  questions  of 
civil  business,  to  be  cured  only  by  the  awfulness  and  the  fellow- 
ship of  prayer.  He  wills  also  that  the  women  should  join  in 
these  prayers,  avoiding  those  outward  vanities  of  dress  which 
were  thei7'  special  temptation,  which  interfered  with  the  humility 
and  the  reverence  of  prayer,  and  from  which  the  cultivation  of 
that  reverence  in  prayer,  and  those  higher  adornments  and 
graces  which  are  sought  for  and  obtained  in  it,  are  the  deliver- 
ance. But  the  woman  also  might  have  another  infirmity,  arising 
not  from  that  which  belongs  to  her  own  sex,  but  from  the  am- 
bition of  being  like  the  other.  She  was  to  pray  with  the  man. 
There  they  were  one  and  equal.  But  he  was  to  teach  and  she 
to  learn.  Quietness  was  her  special  ornament.  Adam  was  first 
formed,  and  then  Eve.  The  woman  was  deceived  ;  the  man  fell 
by  yielding  to  her.  Yet  that  promise  of  a  child,  which  was  the 
deliverance  of  the  first  woman,  shall  be  a  deliverance  and  bless- 
ing to  all  who  follow  her,  if  they  remain  in  faith,  and  love,  and 
holiness,  with  modesty.* 

*  The  words  SiA  t^s  Te/«/o7ovia?  (through  the  child-bearing),  would  not  seem 
to  imply  that  she  should  be  saved  in  the  act  of  child-bearing,  but  that  the  gift 
of  a  child  should  be  a  means  of  her  salvation.  This  sense  of  the  passage 
would  be  consistent  with  the  context.  The  promise  of  a  Seed  to  the  woman 
was  given  in  connection  with  the  promise  of  offspring.  However  Eve  might 
mistake  her  firstborn  for  the  deliverer,  she  surely  learnt  the  mystery  of  a 
higher  life  than  her  own,  through  the  experience  of  a  mother.  To  say  that 
the  curse  of  bringing  forth  children  in  sorrow  is  turned  into  a  spiritual  and 
divine  blessing  to  all  her  descendants  who  will  so  receive  it,  was  a  message 
worthy  of  an  Apostle,  and  one  which  belongs  to  this  place,  where  he  is  pro- 
claiming the  intellectual  dignity  of  the  man,  and   yet   vindicating  a  distinct 


442  LECTURE    II. 

After  laying  down  these  fundamental  principles  respecting  the 
constitution  of  the  Church,  the  Apostle  proceeds  to  speak  of  the 
office  of  him  who  was  to  be  its  guardian.  I  suppose  most  per- 
sons who  have  read  the  description  of  a  Christian  overseer  or 
bishop  in  the  third  chapter,  have  been  somewhat  startled  at  find- 
ing that  the  ideal  is  not  more  elevated,  that  the  qualities  which 
are  described  are  in  the  main  such  as  one  would  demand  of  an 
ordinary  superintendent  of  a  village  or  a  city,  not  those  spiritual 
and  transcendant  qualities  which  we  suppose  must  have  belonged 
to  an  ecclesiastical  ruler  in  Apostolical  primitive  times.  I  think 
much  is  to  be  learnt  from  this  observation.  If  the  Apostle  had 
been  setting  up  an  order  which  was  to  be  separated  from  the 
world,  and  to  propose  to  itself  objects  with  which  the  world  had 
nothing  to  do,  the  commonplace  morality  which  forbids  a  ruler 
to  be  "  a  striker,  given  to  much  wine,  not  greedy  of  filthy  lucre," 
would  have  been  passed  over,  or  taken  for  granted.  Only  those 
tokens  which  mark  the  divine,  abstracted,  spiritual  man,  would 
have  been  dwelt  upon.  If,  on  the  contrary,  the  Apostle  believed 
that  he  was  speaking  of  a  society  which  God  was  setting  up  in 
the  world,  and  not  he,  which  was  to  explain  what  human  society 
is,  which  was  to  be  a  light  of  the  world,  and  salt  of  the  earth,  he 
would  rather  take  for  granted  the  internal  and  spiritual  qualities 
which  were  presumed  in  the  very  nature  of  the  society,  and  in  its 

glory  to  the  woman,  one  in  some  sense  connecting  her  more  directly,  than  the 
man  is  connected,  with  humanity  and  with  Him  who  is  the  head  of  it.  The 
writer  of  this  Epistle,  and  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  was  not  likely  to 
maintain  that  the  pains  of  a  mother  are  the  only,  or  the  necessary  means  of  a 
woman's  spiritual  education  ;  he  has  sufficiently  asserted  the  blessings  which 
are  bestowed  upon  single  women  who  seek  to  serve  the  Lord.  But  it  is  most 
desirable,  if  the  Redemption  of  mankind  is  a  fact,  if  we  are  not  to  attribute 
the  continuance  of  the  race  to  the  Devil,  that  the  other  truth  should  not  be 
concealed.  I  desire  to  thank  a  noble-hearted  and  pure-minded  writer  of  our 
day  for  the  courage  with  which  she  has  illustrated  the  doctrine,  Sta  t^? 
TeKvoyoviai;  <T(oeri<T€Tai  (through  the  child-bearing  shall  she  be  saved),  in  the  story 
of  one  of  her  sex  who  had  fallen  into  evil.  I  allude  to  the  beautiful  tale  of 
"  Ruth,"  which  on  this  point  and  on  all  others  is,  I  think,  as  true  to  human 
experience  as  it  is  to  the  divinest  morality. 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    TIMOTHY.  443 

relation  to  the  eternal  invisible  God,  and  would  explain  to  him 
who  governed  its  members  and  directed  its  proceedings,  how  he 
might  in  his  own  person  exhibit  that  simple,  broad,  manly  char- 
acter, which  the  world  honors,  but  which  it  cannot  produce,  how 
in  his  daily  walk  he  might  prove  to  men  that  there  is  another  life 
than  an  animal  one,— another  end  of  existence  than  the  acquisi- 
tion of  money, — a  power  which  can  restrain  passion,  not  in  those 
who  cultivate  apathy  or  indifference,  but  in  those  who  eschew 
it,  and  are  full  of  burning  zeal.  Probably  if  we  considered  the 
history  of  the  Church  a  little  more,  we  should  find  that  the  pres- 
ervation of  this  kind  of  gracious,  orderly,  humane  demeanor, 
in  the  midst  of  the  provocations  and  degrading  influences  of 
society,  has  been  harder  work,  more  rarely  performed,  more 
mighty  in  its  influence,  bringing  less  honor  to  man— greater  glory 
to  God — than  the  maintenance  of  that  separate  and  ascetic  de- 
votion which  is  often  set  up  in  disparagement  of  it.  There  are 
those  who  have  been  called,  like  Bernard,  to  the  other  kind  o£ 
service,  and  they  are  entitled  to  all  admiration,  gratitude  and 
love.  Between  the  dangers  of  the  two  positions  there  may  be 
little  to  choose.  He  who  rushes  into  either,  without  a  vocation, 
may  have  bitterly  to  repent  his  rashness.  But  it  must  be  a  great 
mistake,  in  the  face  of  the  Apostle's  teaching,  to  maintain  that  he 
who  can  order  God's  household,  and  can  preserve  in  it  the  char 
acter  of  a  Christian  family,  is  not  bearing  at  least  as  true  a 
witness  for  His  kingdom,  as  those  who  retire  from  the  haunts  of 
men,  and  beget  the  impression  that  heaven  is  for  solitaries,  and 
not  for  society.  If  people  would  read  the  Epistles  literally,  and 
not  bring  their  own  notions  with  them,  it  would  be  almost  need- 
less to  make  another  remark  closely  connected  with  this,  that  the 
Apostle  does  not  merely  permit,  but  command,  that  the  Over- 
seers should  be  taken  from  those  who  are  already  husbands  and 
fathers.  I  see  no  way  of  avoiding  this  inference  from  his  words. 
And  I  believe  the  further  we  read  in  ecclesiastical  history,  the 
more  we  shall  find  the  explanation  of  the  command  in  the  nature, 
functions,  and  temptations  of  the  office. 

Those  who  have  accepted  the   maxim  that  there   are  three 


444  LEQTURE    II. 

orders  in  the  Church,  merely  as  a  maxim,  without  much  consid- 
ering what  is  impHed  in  it,  are  puzzled  b}^  finding  no  allusion  to 
the  presbyter  here,  the  Apostle  at  once  passing  from  the  over- 
seer to  the  deacon.  I  am  anxious  to  draw  attention  to  this  point, 
in  which  I  feel  much  interest,  precisely  because  I  attach  very 
great  importance  to  the  office  of  the  presbyter,  and  because  I  do 
7iot  think  that  the  ordinary  objections,  which  are  raised  against 
the  opinion  that  his  office  in  the  developed  Christian  Church  is 
the  expansion  and  flower  of  the  office  of  the  Jewish  priest,  are 
tenable  objections.  .  I  hail  the  omission  of  any  allusion  to  him 
in  this  place,  as  proof  that,  while  the  Jewish  polity  was  standing, 
while  sacrifices  were  still  offered  daily  in  the  Temple,  his  office, 
— though  existing  in  the  Church,  though  possessing  a  much  more 
domestic  character  than  the  Jewish  office,  from  which  it  was 
translated, — had  not  acquired  its  full  meaning,  had,  as  yet,  more 
to  do  with  the  arrangements  and  discipline  of  the  Church  than 
\vith  its  worship.  I  believe  it  is  a  confirmation  of  remarks  which 
I  have  made  before  in  commenting  on  the  Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews, and  to  which  I  shall  have  again  to  call  the  attention  of 
my  readers,  when,  at  the  close  of  this  volume,  I  connect  that 
Epistle  with  the  Epistles  to  the  churches  in  the  Gentile  cities. 
But  I  must  not  leave  this  subject  without  observing  that  the  al- 
lusions to  the  deacons,  are  conceived  in  precisely  the  same  spirit 
as  those  respecting  the  overseers.  They  all  betoken  the  exist- 
ence of  a  Divine  order,  but  of  one  which,  because  it  is  Divine,  is 
also  human  and  natural,  so  far  as  natural  is  opposed  to  artificial. 
The  deacon  is  to  be  tested  before  he  is  admitted  to  the  office, 
and  one  of  the  chief  tests  is  that  he  be  the  husband  of  one  wife, 
ruling  his  children  and  his  own  house  well.  His  wife  also  is  a 
part  of  the  Church  order.  Her  gravity,  sobriety,  freedom  from 
gossiping,  are  taken  to  be  the  signs  of  a  divine  calling.  In  both 
cases,  as  throughout  the  New  Testament,  work  or  service  is  not 
considered  chiefly  as  a  means  to  a  reward,  but  as  itself  a  reward. 
He  who  does  a  less  work  well,  may  hope  for  a  wider  sphere  of 
work.  But  to  be  discharged  from  work  in  this  world  or  any 
other,  would  be  a  penalty,  not  a  prize. 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    TIMOTHY.  445 

The  memorable  passage  in  the  i6th  verse  of  the  3d  chapter 
has  been  the  subject  of  infinite  disputation,  a  disputation,  on  one 
side,  surely  most  unnecessary.  Those  who  feel  that  the  Bible, 
from  beginning  to  end,  is  setting  forth  the  manifestation  of  God 
in  Christ  Jesus,  can  scarcely  be  very  solicitous  whether  the  word 
Oedc:  occurs  here  or  not.  Perhaps,  if  it  does  not,  they  are  justi- 
fied in  connecting  it  with  "the  living  God  "  in  the  15th  verse, 
regarding  what  comes  between  as  parenthetical.  Perhaps  it  may 
be  right,  in  spite  of  grammar,  to  connect  it  with  '^mysfery,^' 
though  then  the  use  of  the  masculine  should  be  explained.  Per- 
haps "  Christ''  may  be  understood,  and  the  relative  used,  how- 
ever strangely,  for  the  demonstrative.  In  no  way  can  the  evi- 
dence of  the  doctrine  depend  upon  this  passage.  In  every  way 
it  must  bear  witness  of  some  divine  mystery  that  "  was  manifest- 
ed in  the  flesh,  justified  in  the  Spirit,  seen  by  angels,  preached 
among  the  nations,  believed  on  in  the  world,  received  up  into 
glory."  And,  since  such  language  is  utterly  monstrous  and  un- 
reasonable, except  in  reference  to  a  person,  those  who  believe 
the  mystery  at  all,  will  identify  it  with  a  person.  What,  I  con- 
ceive, is  much  more  important  than  any  of  this  word-fighting,  is 
the  Apostle's  assertion  that  the  Church  is  a  Church  of  the  living 
God,  and  that  being  so,  the  truth  upon  which  it  stands,  and  of 
which  it  is  the  pillar,  is  the  truth  of  the  union  of  flesh  and  spirit, 
of  the  visible  and  invisible,  of  the  human  and  divine. 

The  immediate  reference  after  these  words  to  those  who  in 
the  latter  times  would  revolt  from  the  faith,  explains,  I  think,  the 
character  of  the  teaching  which  St.  Paul  dreaded  in  the  Ephe- 
sian  Church,  and  how  he  desired  Timothy  to  counteract  it.  To 
some  it  may  seem  that  the  doctrines  which  he  speaks  of,  the 
forbidding  to  marry,  and  the  commanding  to  abstain  from  meats, 
are  not  worthy  of  the  strong  language  which  he  applies  to  them, 
and  could  scarcely  be  the  tokens  of  a  coming  apostasy.  But 
when  one  connects  them  with  all  that  the  Apostle  has  been  say- 
ing previously,  and  especially  with  these  last  words,  one  per- 
ceives that  any  thing  which  put  contempt  upon  human  relation- 
ships, or  led  men  to  think  that  the  earth  had  not  been  redeemed, 


^ 


44^  LECTURE    II. 

was  in  fact  a  denial  that  Christ  had  been  manifested  in  the  flesii, 
justified  in  the  Spirit,  received  up  into  glory ;  it  was  a  denial  of 
the  Gospel  with  which  the  Apostle  was  entrusted  ;  it  destroyed 
the  very  meaning  and  life  of  the  Church,  which  existed  to  bear 
witness  of  the  reconciliation  between  heaven  and  earth.  And 
such  a  revolt  from  the  Christian  faith  implied  also  a  denial  of 
the  great  truth  which  the  Jewish  people  had  been  set  apart  to 
proclaim,  nay,  of  every  truth  which  was  implied  in  the  existence 
of  civil  polity  among  the  nations  of  the  world.  If  every  creature 
of  God  is  not  good,  if  we  may  not  give  thanks  to  God  for  it,  if 
it  is  not  made  holy  by  his  word  and  prayer — the  evil  of  it  being 
not  in  the  things,  but  in  our  selfish  appropriation  of  them — then 
the  earth  is  the  devil's  property.  Christ's  baptism  and  tempta- 
tion and  agony  and  bloody  sweat  have  not  taken  it  out  of  his 
hands.  Every  part  of  the  Apostle's  exhortations,  inasmuch  as 
they  have  been  showing  how  a  truly  heavenly  society  must  be  a 
truly  earthly  society,  how  there  can  be  no  inward  spiritual  root 
from  which  the  fruits  of  common  social  morality  do  not  proceed, 
had  been  striking  at  these  errors.  He  now  bids  his  son  Timothy 
openly  to  denounce  them  as  profane  and  old  wives'  fables.  But 
that  he  may  do  so  with  effect,  that  he  may  put  down  all  these 
mock  forms  of  piety,  he  must  nerve  and  exercise  himself  to  real 
piety,  which  has  the  promise  of  the  life  that  is  now,  and  of  the 
coming  life.  I  need  not  stop  to  remark  that  St.  Paul  is  not  in 
these  words  preaching  the  doctrine  which  he  believed  devoutly 
while  he  was  a  Pharisee,  which  he  had  renounced  ever  since  it 
pleased  God  to  reveal  His  Son  in  him,  that  men  are  paid  for 
their  piety  to  God  by  certain  prizes  in  this  world,  and  by  a  still 
larger  reversionary  interest  in  the  world  to  come.  His  piety  to 
God  was  itself  the  entering  into  possession  of  a  life — a  divine 
life,  which  is  now,  and  is  to  go  on  hereafter.  He  exercised  him- 
self, he  bade  his  son  Timothy  exercise  himself,  in  faith,  and  trust 
in  a  God,  "  who  is  the  Saviour  of  all  men,  specially  of  those 
who  trust  in  Him."  For  this  he  labored  and  agonized,  because 
he  hoped  in  the  living  God,  this  Saviour  of  all.  To  keep  up  that 
hope  he  had  to  fight  with  principalities  and  powers  in  high  places. 


FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    TIMOTHY.  44/ 

It  was  the  cause  of  all  the  enmity  of  those  who  cast  out  his  name 
as  evil. 

The  exhortations  which  follow  belong  to  Church-order  and 
government,  and  will  be  understood  and  appreciated,  I  appre- 
hend, best  by  those  whose  experience  has  been  longest,  even 
though  their  lot  may  have  been  cast  in  some  commercial  city  of 
the  west,  not  in  Ephesus, — in  the  19th  century,  not  in  the  jEirst. 
Timothy  is  bidden  not  to  let  any  one  despise  his  youth,  to  re- 
member the  gift  that  was  in  him,  which  was  conferred  upon  him 
through  prophecy,  with  laying  on  of  hands  of  the  presbytery. 
Having  this  gift,  he  can  be  a  pattern  of  the  believers  in  word,  in 
conversation,  in  love,  in  faith,  in  purity.  He  can  devote  himself 
to  reading,  to  exhortation,  to  instruction ;  he  can  meditate  in 
these  things,  dwell  in  them  ;  so  that  his  progress  will  become 
manifest  to  all.  He  is.  to  exhort  elder  men  as  fathers,  younger 
men  as  brethren,  elder  women  as  mothers,  3'ounger  women  as 
sisters,  with  all  purity.  He  is  to  have  a  great  respect  for  the 
true  widow  ;  but  he  is  not  to  provide  for  them,  if  they  have  chil- 
dren or  descendants  who  can  take  care  of  them.  To  do  that  is 
an  acceptable  thing  in  the  sight  of  God.  There  were  to  be  no 
"  Corbans  "  in  the  Christian  Church.  If  any  one  did  not  take 
care  of  his  own  house,  and  especially  of  his  relations,  he  had  de- 
nied the  faith,  and  was  worse  than  an  infidel.  Timothy  was  to 
have  no  respect  for  people  who  professed  a  great  deal  of  zeal  for 
the  Church's  work,  and  did  not  see  after  their  own.  For  this 
reason  the  younger  widows  were  not  to  be  generally  used  for  the 
service  of  the  Church.  They  were  apt  to  be  idle,  and  triflers, 
and  gossips.  It  was  much  better  for  the  younger  women  (even, 
it  would  appear  from  the  context,  for  the  younger  widows,)  to 
marry,  to  bring  forth  children  to  rule  their  households.  The 
elders  who  had  well  presided  over  the  Church  (here  we  have  the 
name,  and  an  allusion,  though  not  a  very  distinct  one,  to  a  special 
kind  of  government)  should  be  held  worthy  of  a  double  honor, 
that  is,  I  conceive,  of  some  pecuniary  provision,  as  well  as  of 
mere  respect,  for  he  quotes  the  Scripture,  "  Thou  shalt  not  muz- 
zle the  ox  that  treadeth  out  the  corn." 


448  LECTURE    II. 

The  discipline  of  offenders  is  then  touched  upon.  No  accusa- 
tion against  an  elder  is  to  be  entertained,  except  in  the  presence 
of  two  or  three  witnesses.  Offenders  are  to  be  rebuked  openly 
before  all,  that  the  rest  may  fear.  Timothy  is  solemnly  adjured  to 
remember  these  precepts.  He  is  standing  in  the  presence  of  God, 
and  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  elect  angels  ;  how  dares  he  let  any 
prejudice  or  partiality  intrude  into  his  decisions  ?  Here  we 
have  another  specimen  of  the  way  in  which  the  spiritual  prin- 
ciple of  the  Church,  the  faith  that  men  are  actually  brought  into 
the  presence  of  God,  and  into  the  invisible  world,  becomes  the 
security  for  ordinary  human  justice.  And  we  cannot  too  often 
repeat  the  remark,  that,  whenever  churches  or  churchmen  forget 
or  disbelieve  the  truth  of  their  high  calling,  and  the  fact  of  God's 
continual  judgment  of  their  reins  and  hearts,  they  become  im- 
measurably more  un]ust,  more  partial,  more  utterly  unprincipled, 
than  states  or  statesmen  are  when  they  are  at  their  very  worst. 
Nay,  they  become  the  corrupters  of  states  and  statesmen,  or  else, 
while  they  retain  any  sense  of  their  moral  obligations,  incur  their 
righteous  reproofs,  and  their  bitter  contempt.  Therefore  we 
should  pray  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  any  judicature  rather  than  a 
religious  judicature,  unless  it  is  really  possessed  by  the  truth 
which  St.  Paul  here  inculcates,  with  such  awful  gravity,  upon  the 
bishop  of  Ephesus.  He  is  further  told  not  to  lay  hands  sud- 
denly upon  any  one,  however  eager  he  may  be  to  send  forth 
laborers  into  the  harvest ;  for  so  he  is  making  himself  partaker 
of  other  men's  sins.  Their  false  teachings  and  evil  examples 
become  his.  He  is  to  keep  himself  pure,  and  he  is  to  be  careful 
of  the  health  of  his  body  as  well  as  of  his  spirit.  How  the  fol- 
lowing passage  is  connected  with  this  I  am  not  able  to  say,  nor 
do  I  see  clearly  what  it  means.  It  might  seem  to  indicate  that 
all  bodily  weaknesses  are  in  some  sense  the  tokens  of  evils  with- 
in ;  but  that  those  in  wdiom  they  come  out  and  manifest  them- 
selves, are  in  no  wise  worse  or  more  hardly  treated,  than  those 
whose  evils  are  not  brought  to  light  before  the  world.  There 
is  the  same  righteous  judgment  in  all  cases,  the  same  revelation, 
by  one  means  or  other,  to  the  man  himself  of  what  he  is.     This 


FIRST     EPISTLE    TO    TIMOTHY.  /[/[() 

might  be  a  needful  comfort  to  Timothy,  whose  bodily  weaknesses 
perhaps  discouraged  him,  and,  since  they  interfered  with  his  ac- 
tivity, appeared  to  be  sentences  of  God  against  him.  Both  the 
good  and  evil  deeds  of  men,  St.  Paul  would  seem  to  say,  come 
forth  into  manifestation  before  the  day  in  which  all  secrets  are 
revealed.  And  since  that  which  doth  make  manifest  is  light,  we 
are  to  receive  such  discoveries  as  coming  from  Him  who  is  light. 
I  do  not  affirm  that  this  is  the  Apostle's  meaning  ;  but  I  have 
not  perceived  any  other,  which  is  equally  natural  in  this  place. 

Then  arose  those  questions  which  were  perpetually  tormenting 
the  early  Church  concerning  the  master  and  slave.  I  shall  al- 
lude to  that  subject  again,  when  I  speak  of  the  Epistle  to  Phile- 
mon. Here  the  principle  of  Divine  order,  which  would  be 
ultimately  the  great  principle  of  civil  freedom,  is  asserted.  Let 
the  Christian  slave  pay  all  respect  and  honor  to  the  heathen 
master  out  of  reverence  to  the  name  of  God  and  His  doctrine. 
Let  the  Christian  slave  pay  to  the  Christian  master  all  the  more 
honor  because  they  are  brethren.  Then  their  services  become 
mutual  services,  benefits  received  and  returned  ;  that  becomes  a 
relation  which  was  a  bondage. 

These  plain  practical  exhortations  St.  Paul  speaks  of  as  healthy 
words,  the  words  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  doctrine  accord- 
ing to  godliness.  Those  who  set  themselves  against  this  teach- 
ing, who  have  another  more  refined  Christianity,  he  treats  with 
very  little  ceremony.  Such  men  are  puffed  up  ;  they  have  no 
real  knowledge  ;  they  have  a  diseased  love  for  controversies  and 
word-fightings  ;  out  of  which,  he  says,  spring  envy,  disputation, 
evil  suspicions,  the  busy  altercations  of  men  who  are  corrupted 
in  reason  and  alienated  from  the  truth,  who  suppose  godliness  to 
be  gain.  He  dwells  upon  this  charge.  He  evidently  feels  that 
he  has  touched  the  very  root  of  the  evil  which  he  desires  Timothy 
to  extirpate  from  the  Church  of  Ephesus.  In  that  rich  trading 
city,  notions  connected  with  trade  were  sure  to  mingle  them- 
selves with  all  the  thoughts  of  Christian  men.  St.  Paul,  in  his 
allusions  to  the  bonded  goods  and  the  seal,  had  shown  how  they 
might  be  turned  to  spiritual  profit.     But  they  could   and  would 

2q 


450  LECTURE     II. 

be  turned  to  a  very  opposite  use,  they  could  find  would  in- 
fect all  the  visions  of  the  spiritual  world,  and  so  would  make  it 
utterly  powerless  for  the  reformation  of  the  visible  world.  The 
fine  Gnostical  speculators  were,  in  truth,  tradi?ig  speculators. 
They  were  teaching  men  how  they  were  to  get  a  greater  return 
for  the  sacrifices  that  they  made,  than  other  men,  how  by  pur- 
suing certain  trains  of  thought,  or  observing  certain  outward 
rules,  they  might  increase  their  felicity  in  this  or  the  other 
world.  The  Apostle  admits  that  godliness  is  great  gain  when  it 
is  accompanied  with  contentment.  The  poorest  man,  with  his 
food  and  clothing,  has  an  infinite  treasure.  Though  we  come 
with  nothing  into  the  world,,  and  can  carry  nothing  out,  we 
may  have  God  for  our  eternal  portion.  "  But  those  who  will 
be  rich,"  he  says,  "  fall  into  a  temptation  and  a  snare,  and  many 
lusts  that  are  foolish  and  mischievous,  which  drown  men  in  ruin 
and  perdition.  For  the  love  of  money  is  the  root  of  all  evil, 
through  aiming  at  which  some  have  wandered  away  from  the 
faith,  and  have  pierced  themselves  through  with  many  sorrows." 
The  reader  is  familiar  with  this  language.  But  has  he  con- 
sidered it,  in  connection  with  the  warnings  against  false  teachers 
which  precede  it,  and  with  the  whole  tenor  of  the  Epistle?  Has 
he  perceived  that  the  love  of  money  is  not  only  the  root  of  all 
evil,  because  it  draws  men  away  from  the  spiritual  world,  but 
because  it  leads  them  to  make  that  spiritual  world  a  mere  collec- 
tion of  prizes  which  they  are  to  pursue  and  appropriate,  so  that 
selfishness  becomes  the  law  as  much  of  heaven  as  of  earth  ? 

"But  thou,  O  man  of  God,"  he  goes  on,  "fly  these  things. 
But  pursue  righteousness,  godliness,  faith,  love,  patience,  gentle- 
ness." These  are  the  prizes  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven ;  these 
are  the  treasures  that  are  brought  near  to  men,  and  which 
St.  Paul  called  upon  his  dear  ^on  as  a  man  to  claim  for  himself  and 
for  his  brethren.  "  Fight,"  he  says,  "  the  good  fight  of  faith." 
Believe  earnestly  that  these  constitute  God's  own  nature,  and  that 
He  bestows  them  in  Christ  upon  you.  "  Lay  hold  of  eternal  life," 
the  life  of  a  spirit,  the  life  of  a  man,  the  life  which  is  opposed  to 
that  of  an  animal,  to  that  of  time  or  sense.     Lay  hold  upon  it,  for 


FIRST     EPISTLE     TO    TIMOTHY.  45 1 

you  have  been  called  to  it,  and  you  have  confessed  the  good 
confession  that  it  is  yours  before  many  witnesses.  And  you  are 
not  the  first  who  witnessed  this  good  confession.  "  Christ  Jesus 
witnessed  it  before  Pontius  Pilate.  Therefore  I  call  upon  you  as 
in  His  sight,  and  the  sight  of  that  God  who  quickeneth  the  dead, 
to  keep  the  commandment  spotless,  faultless  until  the  manifesta- 
tion of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  manifestation  which  He  will 
make  in  His  own  fit  time,  who  is  the  blessed  and  only  ruler, 
the  King  of  kings,  and  Lord  of  lords,  who  only  hath  immortality, 
who  dwelleth  in  light  inaccessible,  whom'  no  man  hath  seen  or 
can  see,  to  whom  be  honor  and  eternal  power.     Amen." 

Here  as  in  every  other  rhapsody  of  the  Apostle,  the  practical 
end  is  never  for  one  moment  forgotten.  He  is  still  applying  the 
most  direct  remedy  to  a  direct  and  gross  evil.  This  declaration 
of  the  heavenly  wealth,  of  the  wonderful  and  unutterable  treas- 
ures which  are  laid  up  in  God,  and  which  belong  to  the  spirit  of 
man,  terminates  in  the  exhortation  from  which  it  should  never  be 
separated  ;  "  The  rich  in  this  world  command  not  to  have  proud 
thoughts  ;  nor  to  hope  in  the  uncertainty  of  wealth,  but  in  the 
God  who  giveth  to  us  all  things  richly  for  enjoyment ;  to  do 
good,  to  be  rich  in  noble  works,  to  be  ready  in  giving,  communi- 
cating ;  treasuring  up  for  themselves  a  good  foundation  for  the 
future,  that  they  may  have  hold  of  that  which  is  truly  life." 
Here  is  the  proper  earthly  sequel  to  his  vision  of  heavenly  things. 

And  then  the  whole  epistle  is  wound  up  with  an  exhortation 
to  Timothy  himself,  which  makes  us  feel  what  perfect  unity  there 
is  in  it,  how  the  purpose  which  the  apostle  set  before  himself  at 
the  commencement,  has  been  present  with  him  to  the  end. 
"  Oh  Timothy,  preserve  the  trust  that  has  been  given  thee,  turn- 
ing away  from  the  profane  empty  talkings  and  oppositions  of  that 
which  is  falsely  called  knowledge,  which  some  professing,  have 
gone  astray  about  faith." 


452  LECTURE     II. 


SECOND  EPISTLE  TO  TIMOTHY. 

The  second  Epistle  to  Timothy  has  a  somewhat  more  per- 
sonal character  than  the  first — personal  in  reference  both  to  the 
writer  and  the  receiver  of  it.  But  all  the  indications  respecting 
the  Church  of  Ephesus  are  similar  to  those  which  we  have 
noticed  already ;  only  that  the  Apostle's  sense  of  evils  arising 
out  of  the  false  teaching  which  he  had  denounced  to  that  Church 
and  to  all  the  churches,  is  keener  and  more  distinctly  expressed. 

The  passage  from  the  third  verse  of  the  first  chapter  to  the 
fifteenth,  would  seem  to  indicate  that  there  had  been  great  dis- 
couragement in  the  mind  of  Timothy,  and  something  perhaps  of 
the  timidity  which  is  a  natural  result  of  discouragement. 
According  to  the  rule  in  all  his  letters  the  apostle  dwells  first 
upon  the  tokens  which  he  had  given  of  faith  and  earnestness,  and 
strengthens  him  by  the  examples  of  his  mother  and  grandmother  ; 
before  he  hints  at  all  his  infirmities.  But  neither  his  early 
zeal,  nor  the  lessons  he  had  received  from  others,  could  enable 
him  to  sustain  his  position  at  Ephesus.  St.  Paul  reminds  him 
of  the  gift  of  God  that  is  in  him  by  the  laying  on  of  his  hands. 
He  would  have  him  recollect  that  he  has  received  a  Spirit,  and 
that  it  is  not  a  Spirit  of  cowardice,  but  of  power  and  love  and  a 
sound  mind.  In  the  assurance  that  he  has  that  mighty  Friend 
and  Helper  with  him,  he  can  bid  him  "not  to  be  ashamed  of  the 
testimony  of  our  Lord,  nor  of  himself  His  bondsman,  but  to  be  a 
fellow-sufi^erer  in  the  Gospel  in  the  strength  of  God,  who  hath 
saved  us  and  hath  called  us  with  a  holy  calling,  a  calling  and 
salvation  not  depending  on  our  works,  but  upon  His  own  pur- 
pose and  grace  that  was  given  to  us  in  Christ  Jesus  before  the 
world  began ;  *  but  has  now  been  manifested  through  the  appear- 
ing of  our  Saviour  Christ  Jesus,  Him  who  has  destroyed   death, 

*  I  leave  our  translation,  not  caring  to  enter  here  into  a  discussion  of  the 
words  npb  Xpovojv  atwvt'cov,  (before  evil  times),  which,  with  a  multitude  of  similar 
expressions,  deserve,  and  I  hope  will  receive,  sometime  a  very  full  examination. 


SECOND  EPISTLE    TO    TIMOTHY.  453 

and  brought- to  light  life  and  immortality  through  the  Gospel." 
I  apprehend  we  have  never  felt  the  force  of  these  words,  or  the 
relation  in  which  the  different  parts  of  the  message  stand  to 
each  other  —  what  need  there  was  for  the  Apostle  to  speak 
of  a  purpose  before  time,  what  need  to  speak  of  a  mani- 
festation in  time,  what  need  to  dwell  upon  a  calling  and 
salvation  which  do  not  depend  upon  men's  acts,  but  are  the 
origin  of  them,  what  the  death  is  which  Christ  has  destroyed, 
what  the  life  and  immortality  are  which  He  has  brought  to  light 
— until  we  have  connected  them  with  the  feebleness  and  despond- 
ency of  a  minister  of  Christ's  Gospel,  and  have  seen  how  the 
omission  of  any  clause  would  have  been  a  loss  to  him,  of  some- 
thing which  he  needed  to  preserve  him  from  utter  hopelessness. 
And  then  come  in,  as  always,  the  Apostle's  own  experience  and 
sympathy.  He  too  is  a  herald,  an  apostle,  a  teacher  of  this  Gos- 
pel like  his  son  Timothy ;  he  too  is  a  sufferer  for  it  ;  he  too  has 
all  temptations  to  be  ashamed  of  it.  "  But  he  knows  in  whom 
he  has  believed,  and  is  persuaded  that  he  is  able  to  keep  that 
trust  which  he  has  received  against  that  day."*  Let  him  keep 
before  him  the  wholesome  words  which  he  has  heard  from  him, 
interpreting  them  by  the  faith  and  the  love  which  is  in  Christ 
Jesus,  Let  him  too  keep  the  goodly  trust  which  is  committed  to 
him  by  the  power  of  the  holy  Spirit  that  dwelt  in  them  both. 

One  cause  of  Timothy's  depression  is  indicated  in  the  next 
paragraph.  There  had  been  a  general  defection  from  the 
Apostle  among  his  disciples  in  Asia.  Two  especially  are  men- 
tioned. The  Apostle  trembles  and  hopes  for  another  (Onesi- 
phorus)  who  had  often  both  in  Rome  and  Ephesus  stood  by  him 
bravely.  But  whatever  others  might  do,  he  beseeches  his  own 
son  to  be  strong  in  the  grace  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  and 
he  would  have   him  commit  to  faithful  men,  who  would  be  fit  to 

*  tV  napae^K-qv  fjiov  (my  dcposit).  We  translate,  "  That  which  I  have  com- 
mitted to  him."  Is  it  not  rather  that  which  He  has  committed  to  me  ?  Does 
not  this  rendering  connect  the  Apostle's  own  faith  better  with  his  exhortation 
to  Timothy  ?  "  I  cannot  take  care  of  this  mighty  stewardship  which  God  has 
given  me  ;  but  He  can  and  will." 


454  LECTURE     II. 

teach  others,  the  words  which  he  had  heard  from  him.  He  must 
remember  that  he  is  a  soldier  of  Christ,  and  is  to  suffer  with  his 
Captain.  To  please  Him  he  must  not  involve  himself  with  any 
worldly  traffic,  which  would  interfere  with  his  warfare.  Or  let 
him  think  of  himself  as  a  wrestler  ;  then  there  is  no  crown  for  him 
unless  he  wrestles  according  to  the  rules  of  the  games.  Or  let 
him  consider  himself  a  husbandman  ;  then  let  him  recollect  that 
the  fruits  which  ripen  under  his  hands  he  ought  himself  to  be  a  par- 
taker of.  These  were  parables  which  he  must  lay  to  heart,  God 
would  give  him  understanding  to  ^ee  the  meaning  and  moral  of 
them.  Let  him  ever  keep  in  mind  what  Paul's  Gospel  had  been, 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  of  the  seed  of  David,  of  Jesus  Christ  who 
is  risen  from  the  dead  ;  or  rather  let  him  keep  Him  in  mind  Then 
he  would  understand  how  the  servant  suffered  as  a  malefactor, 
for  the  Master  had  so  suffered.  Then  he  would  understand 
that  the  word  of  God  is  not  bound  because  he  who  utters  it  is  in 
bonds.  Then  he  would  understand  too  the  great  reward  of  suf- 
fering. He  suffered  for  the  sake  of  the  elect,  that  they  also 
might  obtain  the  salvation  that  is  in  Jesus  Christ  with  eternal 
glory.  The  word  may  be  trusted.  Fellow-suffering  is  the  way 
to  fellow  life.  If  we  endure  with  Him,  we  shall  share  His  king- 
dom. If  we  deny  Him,  He  will  deny  us.  But  our  faithlessness 
will  not  make  Him  unfaithful  ;  for  He  cannot  deny  Himself. 

These  grand  maxims  and  proverbs  for  the  Christian  minister 
himself,  were  also  those  of  which  he  was  to  bear  witness  as  in 
Christ's  sight,  to  other  men.  He  beseeches  him  again  to  have 
nothing  to  do  with  word-fighting.  He  was  to  try  to  present  him- 
self as  an  approved  work??ta7i  to  God.  Not  that  words  were  not 
very  sacred.  He  had  a  word  of  truth  which  he  was  to  divide 
accurately  and  rightly,  not  to  set  up  one  part  of  it  against  the 
other.  Those  who  used  words  for  the  opposite  purpose  were  cul- 
tivating impiety.  Their  words  became  mere  vain  talk,  nay,  they 
became  cancers  that  destroyed  life  instead  of  nourishing  it.  For 
instance,  Hymenaeus  and  Philetus  had  become  gossips  and  ar- 
guers  about  the  resurrection,  and  so,  perverting  the  Aposde's 
own  words,  had  represented  that  there  was  no  future  resurrection. 


SECOND     EPISTLE     TO     TIMOTHY.  455 

But  all  this  did  not  weaken  the  foundation  which  God  had 
laid.  And  there  were  two  great  practical  rules  for  themselves, 
"God  knoweth  them  that  are  His,"  and,  "Let  everyone  that 
nameth  the  name  of  Christ  depart  from  iniquity."  The  first 
would  prevent  them  from  judging  others  ;  the  second  would  tell 
them  their  own  privilege  and  duty.  Timothy  had  no  reason  to 
be  discouraged  if  he  found  in  God's  house  what  he  would  find  in 
every  other  ^great  house,  vessels  of  precious  and  of  worthless  ma- 
terials, vessels  turned  to  honorable  and  to  dishonorable  uses. 
Each  man  had  to  see  that  he  was  purified  from  that  which  was 
base,  that  he  was  a  vessel  sanctified  for  that  which  was  honor- 
able, that  he  was  useful  to  the  Master,  that  he  was  prepared  for 
every  good  work.  Let  Timothy  avoid  the  youthful  lusts  which 
deprave  the  man,  let  him  pursue  righteousness,  faith,  love,  peace 
with  those  that  call  upon  the  Lord  out  of  a  pure  heart.  Let  him 
have  as  little  as  possible  to  do  with  foolish  questions,  even  in  the 
way  of  arguing  with  them  ;  for  all  these  things  generate  strifes. 
And  the  servant  of  God  should  not  be  striving  (this  we  may 
suspect  was  one  of  Timothy's  youthful  infirmities  and  tempta- 
tions) ;  but  should  be  mild  to  all,  ready  to  teach,  bearing  evil,  in 
meekness  instructing  those  that  set  themselves  in  opposition,  in 
case  God  may  give  them  repentance  unto  the  acknowledgment  of 
the  truth,  and  that  those  may  escape  out  of  the  snare  of  the  devil 
who  had  been  led  captive  by  him  and  are  fulfilling  his  will. 

It  is  no  part  however  of  St.  Paul's  encouragement  to  Timothy 
to  tell  him  that  he  would  not  have  these  adversaries  to  encoun- 
ter, or  that  bright  times  were  immediately  at  hand.  On  the  con- 
trary, he  tells  him  that  bad  times  are  at  hand.  It  is  impos- 
sible, even  if  we  had  not  his  hints  in  his  other  Epistles,  to  doubt 
that  the  last  days  he  speaks  of  here,  are  days  which  Timothy  was 
beginning  to  experience,  and  which  he  would  have  to  experience 
more  and  more.'  The  men  who  were  to  be  lovers  of  themselves, 
lovers  of  money,  braggarts,  proud,  evil  speakers,  disobedient  to 
parents,  unthankful,  unholy, who  were  to  have  the  form  of  godliness, 
but  to  deny  its  power,  were  men  from  whom  Timothy  was  to  turn 
himself  away.     So  graphically  indeed  does  he  describe  them,  that 


456  LECTURE    II. 

every  age  has  been  certain,  and  has  had  a  right  to  be  certain,  that 
they  apphed  to  itself.  Always  there  have  been  those  religious 
teachers  who  "creep  into  houses  and  lead  captive  silly  women, 
laden  with  sins,  led  about  with  divers  lusts,  ever  learning  and 
never  able  to  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth."  This  has 
been  the  trade  of  Romish  and  of  Protestant  deceivers.  Among 
women  of  this  kind  they  have  found  their  most  profitable  con- 
verts. But  because  the  lesson  is  a  universal  one,  and  capable  of 
innumerable  applications,  it  is  not  the  less  true  that  it  belonged 
specially  to  that  time,  and  that  every  thing  which  St.  Paul  said 
was  realized  by  his  own  son  in  his  own  Ephesian  Church,  that 
every  event  which  it  prognosticated  came  to  pass  in  that  genera- 
tion. It  was  Timothy  who  had  need  to  be  reminded  of  the  old 
traditions  of  his  country  respecting  the  magicians  who  withstood 
Moses,  Timothy  who  had  need  to  be  assured  that  the  new 
enchanter  would  be  discomfited  like  the  old,  Timothy  who  had 
need  to  be  reminded  that  his  master  and  father  had  not,  like 
these  men,  crept  into  houses,  or  courted  popularity  among  silly 
women,  but  had  believed,  loved,  suffered,  been  persecuted  where- 
soever he  went.  It  was  Timothy  who  had  need  to  be  reminded 
that  he  should  abide  in  the  things  which  he  had  learnt,  and  that 
he  should  still  look  to  those  hol^  Scriptures  which  he  had  known 
from  a  child,  to  make  him  wise  unto  salvation  through  faith  that 
is  in  Christ  Jesus.  It  was  Timothy  who  had  need  to  be  told 
that  every  inspired  writing  is  also  useful  for  instruction,  for  con- 
viction, for  restoration,  for  education  in  righteousness,  that  the 
man  of  God  may  be  perfect,  fitted  for  every  good  work.* 

*  It  is  often  said  that  this — the  natural  and  obvious  rendering  of  the  words 
— ^merely  gives  birth  to  an  idle  truism  unworthy  of  an  apostle.  I  conceive  it 
is  no  truism  at  all,  but  a  truth,  specially  needful  for  Timothy  and  for  all 
teachers,  who  like  him,  know  the  Scriptures  by  heart,  and  take  their  inspira- 
tion for  granted.  Ministers  of  God  need  to  be  reminded  that  these  Scriptures 
are  not  merely  to  be  quoted  or  spoken  of  as  divinely  given  oracles,  but  that 
they  are  also  useful  for  the  most  direct  and  practical  purposes,  that  they  are 
to  be  studied  earnestly  and  in  their  connection,  by  every  one  who  would 
instruct,  convict,  educate.  Do  we  know  these  things  .?  Happy  are  we  if  we 
do  them  !    Happy  are  we  if  we  do  not  profane  Scripture,  by  turning  it  into  a 


SECOND    EPISTLE    TO    TIMOTHY.  45/ 

The  Apostle  is  so  convinced  that  a  time  was  at  hand  when 
members  of  churches  "  would  not  bear  sound  teaching,  but 
according  to  their  own  lusts  would  heap  to  themselves  teachers 
"having  a  perpetual  and  restless  itching  to  hear,  but  turning  their 
ears  from  the  truth  to  fables,"  that  he  uses  one  of  his  most 
solemn  adjurations  to  Timothy  to  "  preach  the  word,  to  be  instant 
in  season,  out  of  season,  to  reprove,  rebuke,  exhort ;  to  be  sober 
in  all  things,  to  suffer  evil,  to  do  the  work  of  an  evangelist, 
thoroughly  to  fulfil  his  ministry."  There  is  still  another  reason 
for  this  exhortation.  The  Apostle  thinks  that  he  has  nearly 
finished  his  own  fight ;  his  race  is  almost  won.  He  is  looking 
forward  to  a  crown  which  now,  as  always,  is  not  a  crown  for 
righteousness,  but  a  crown  ^righteousness.  That  which  he  said 
to  the  Philippians  he  was.  pursuing  after,  he  hopes  fully  to  attain  ; 
to  dwell  altogether  in  the  righteousness  of  God,  absolutely  and 
for  ever  to  be  delivered  from  his  own.  This  crown  which  he 
has  longed  for,  which  God  has  held  out  to  him,  he  believes 
the  Lord,  the  righteous  Judge,  will  give  him  in  that  day  when  He 
is  revealed.  But  he  will  give  it  also — for  how  can  he  bear  to 
think  of  such  a  possession  as  a  selfish  one  ? — to  all  those  who 
love  His  appearing.  Even  with  this  prospect  in  sight  he  has  a 
craving  for  human  sympathy.  He  longs  to  see  Timothy ;  he 
mourns  for  the  loss  of  Demas,  wishes  for  Mark  (probably  that 
very  John  Mark,  on  account  of  whom  he  had  separated  from 
Barnabasj,and  speaks  sorrowfully,  though  not  bitterly,  of  his 
loneliness  as  far  as  earthly  sympathy  went,  when  he  made  his 
first  defence  before  the  Emperor.  There  is  an  allusion,  among 
these  notices  of  friends,  to  an  enemy,  Alexander  the  coppersmith, 
of  whom  Timothy  had  need  to  beware.  The  apparent  severity 
of  the  parenthesis  which  accompanies  the  mention  of  him, 
entirely  disappears  if  we  adopt  Lachmann's  reading,  "  The  Lord 

book  of  texts,  which  every  one  is  to  receive  as  authoritative,  though  no 
attempt  is  made  to  discover  their  sense,  though  they  are  utterly  turned  from 
their  plain  sense  !  Happy  are  we  if  we  do  not  use  the  inspired  writings  not  to 
instruct,  convince,  reform,  but  to  darken  counsel,  to  silence  reprovers,  to  per- 
petuate abuses,  to  blind  and  stupefy  the  conscience  ! 


458  LECTURE    II. 

will  reward  him  according  to  his  works."  Not  that  there  is  any 
real  severity  in  desiring  that  the  law,  "  Whatsoever  a  man  soweth 
that  shall  he  reap,"  should  accomplish  itself  in  every  case.  If 
there  was  any  thing  right  or  true  in  Alexander,  the  righteous 
Judge  would  acknowledge  that  right  and  truth.  What  there  was 
false,  what  set  itself  against  the  truth,  what  obstructed  it  in  him 
or  in  others,  the  same  righteous  Judge  would  destroy.  It  was 
fitting  that  an  Apostle  who  had  fought  the  good  fight  and  was 
about  to  be  offered  up,  should  desire  that  in  that,  and  in  all 
things,  God's  will  should  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven. 


EPISTLE  TO  TITUS. 


The  Church  at  Ephesus  must  be  always  more  interesting  to  us 
than  the  Church  in  Crete,  of  which  we  know  nothing  from  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  very  little  from  any  later  history. 
The  Epistle  to  Titus  gives  a  few,  not  very  agreeable,  hints 
respecting  the  character  of  the  islanders,  which  here,  as  else- 
where, was  represented  in  the  character  of  the  Church.  If  we 
had  only  the  one  passage  which  teaches  us  how  much  the 
Apostle  studied  the  condition  of  every  people  to  whom  he  went, 
and  how  sure  he  was  that  every  national  and  tribe  peculiarity 
would  affect  the  faith  and  conduct  of  those  who  confess  Christ 
and  would  require  to  be  watched  by  His  ministers,  the  Epistle 
would  be  of  exceeding  value  as  correcting  a  great  many  of  our 
confused  notions,  and  as  an  interpreter  of  the  experience  of  the 
pastor  and  of  the  missionary.  A  certain  notion  that  the  Chris- 
tian man,  if  he  is  indeed  born  from  above,  has  nothing  to  do 
with  his  own  past  life  or  with  the  life  of  the  people  to  whom  he 
belongs,  that  he  is  translated  into  a  different  state,  and  that 
there  is  not  an  especial  temperament  and  constitution  which  he 
inherits  from  his  ancestors,  is  continually  alternating  with  practi- 
cal discoveries  which  confute  it,  and  which  grievously  embarrass 
him  who  has  entertained  it.  It  should  therefore  be  carefully  re- 
membered that  there  are  few  letters  which  speak  so  much  of  the 
washing  of  regeneration,  and  the  renewing  of  the  holy  Spirit,  as 
this  very  one  which  quotes  the  testimony  of  the  Cretan  prophet, 
that  his  countrymen  were  "  liars,  evil  beasts,  slow  bellies,"  and 
makes  that  a  reason  why  Titus  should  rebuke  sharply,  not  the 
unbaptized,  but  the  baptized. 

The  reason  for  which  Titus  is  left  in  Crete  are  not  exactly 
those  which  are  assigned  for  leaving  Timothy  in  Ephesus.  In 
the  first  place  Titus  is  directed  to   "  set  in  order  the  things  that 

^  (459) 


460  LECTURE     II. 

are  wanting,  and  establish  presbyters  in  each  city."  No  such 
command  as  this  was  given  to  Timothy.  The  difference  would 
seem  to  arise  from  the  fact  that  an  island  of  such  a  size  as  Crete 
required  only  one  central  overseer,  and  a  number  of  distinct 
rulers  of  cities,  looking  up  to  him.  Here,  then,  is  a  further  step 
in  the  organization  of  the  Church,  though  we  have  still  nothing 
which  gives  the  presbyter  the  character  which  he  possessed 
in  later  times.  The  next  difference  is  that  the  Cretan  teachers 
who  required  to  be  kept  in  order,  though  of  the  circumcision, 
and  giving  heed  to  Jewish  fables  and  commands  of  men,  seem 
to  have  had  much  less  of  the  properly  Gnostical  character  than 
those  we  have  been  lately  hearing  of.  Questionings,  and  gene- 
alogies, and  legal  strifes  are  indeed  noticed.  But  the  context 
would  lead  one  to  suppose  that  the  Judaizers  were  rather  drench- 
ing the  Church  with  idle  legends,  and  Rabbinical  debates  about 
trifles,  which  people  in  all  ages  have  called  religious,  because 
they  refer  to  places  or  persons  mentioned  in  the  Bible,  than  with 
any  of  the  high-flown  speculations  which  amused  and  perverted 
a  more  educated  people.  It  is  to  these  he  refers  when  he  says, 
"  All  things  are  pure  to  the  pure  ;  but  to  those  who  are  defiled 
and  unbelieving,  nothing  is  pure,  but  their  mind  and  their  con- 
science are  defiled."  It  was  possible  to  find  a  good  meaning 
and  use  in  these  fables,  as  well  as  in  the  rules  which  the  Jewish 
teachers  had  laid  down.  It  is  not  impossible  that  Titus  may 
have  discovered  this  profit  in  them  himself,  and  therefore  many 
have  doubted  whether  he  ought  to  discourage  them.  But  the 
Apostle,  whose  mind  is  wholly  manly  and  practical,  has  been 
taught  to  see  the  mischief  which  this  trifling,  even  when  it  was 
in  itself  merely  harmless  and  childish,  was  doing  to  a  people  who 
wanted  moral  life  and  restoration,  who  wanted  a  power  to  make 
them  right,  true,  orderly  citizens  and  men. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  Apostle's  mind  being  itself  practical  and 
moral,  and  of  his  object  being  to  produce  a  moral  society  in 
Crete.  Any  one  who  reads  the  Epistle  with  honest  eyes  must 
see  that  this  is  the  case,  that  the  object  of  his  wholesome 
doctrine    is    to    make    old    men  sober,    grave,  reasonable  ;   old 


EPISTLE    TO     TITUS.  46 1 

women  not  false  accusers,  not  wine-bibbers ;  young  women 
lovers  of  their  husbands  and  lovers  of  their  children  ;  3^oung  men 
sober-minded  ;  servants  obedient,  masters  just ;  the  overseer 
himself  an  example  to  the  rest  for  uncorruptness,  dignity, 
healthiness  of  speech,  for  hospitality,  love  of  goodness,  justice, 
holiness,  moderation.  But  all  these  great  moral  effects,  this 
righteous  polity,  this  fulfilment  of  specific  duties,  had  no  other 
origin  than  in  the  saving  "  grace  of  God  which  had  appeared  to 
all  men,  teaching  us  that  having  denied  ungodliness  and  worldly 
lusts,  we  should  live  temperately,  and  righteously,  and  piously  in 
this  present  age,  expecting  the  blessed  hope  and  manifestation 
of  the  glory  of  our  great  God  and  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  who 
gave  Himself  for  us,  that  He  might  redeem  us  from  all  iniquity, 
and  cleanse  for  Himself  a  peculiar  people  zealous  of  good  works." 
Thus  the  good  news  that  God  had  manifested  His  own  love  and 
glory  in  Christ,  who  had  given  Himself  for  men,  to  deliver  them, 
not  from  punishment,  but  from  sin,  and  that  He  would  finally 
•manifest  his  righteousness  and  glory  as  the  great  reward,  was 
the  power,  and  the  only  power,  by  which  St.  Paul  hoped  to 
effect  any  thing,  for  Crete  or  for  the  world. 

And  he  has  the  same  hope  for  Cretans  as  for  himself.  He 
has  not  called  them  hard  names  without  being  willing  to  apply 
much  harder,  to  Paul.  Though  bred  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel, 
thou'gh  striving  to  practice  all  the  righteousness  of  the  law,  he 
was  conscious  in  himself  of  an  ignorance,  disobedience,  malice 
and  envy,  which  put  him  at  least  on  their  level.  "  But  when  the 
goodness  and  the  philanthropy  of  our  Saviour  God  had  been 
manifested,  not  springing  out  of  the  works  in  righteousness  which 
we  had  done,  but  according  to  His  own  mercy  He  saved  us, 
through  the  washing  of  regeneration  and  renewal  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  which  He  poured  out  upon  us  richly  through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Saviour,  that  being  justified  by  His  grace  we  might  become 
heirs  according  to  hope  of  eternal  life."  This  doctrine  the  Apos- 
tle affirmed  to  be  trustworthy.  He  would  have  his  son  Titus 
very  confident  about  these  things,  that  those  who  had  believed 
God  might  be   careful   to  be  forward   in  good   works.     These 


462  LECTURE    II. 

things  he  opposes  as  good  and  useful,  to  the  foolish  questions 
and  debates  which  he  wished  to  put  down.  An  heretical  man 
who  would  persist  in  raising  such  disputations,  was  to  be  rejected 
after  one  or  two  rebukes.  The  act  of  the  overseer,  St.  Paul 
says,  would  only  be  the  ratification  of  a  sentence  which  his  con- 
science had  already  pronounced  upon  himself. 


THE  EPISTLE  TO  PHILEMON. 

I  SEIZE  the  opportunity  which  is  afforded  me  by  this  beautiful 
little  Epistle  (the  preservation  of  which  in  the  canon,  when  so 
many  that  must  have  looked  so  much  more  plausible  and  im- 
portant to  the  Church  were  rejected,  is  to  me  a  wonderful  proof 
of  the  divine  care  that  was  exercised  over  its  judgment),  to  mak« 
two  or  three  observations,  which  I  believe  show  how  the  doc- 
trine of  the  New  Testament  has  borne  upon  the  history  of  later 
ages.  "  Christianity,"  said  Mr.  Canning,  in  one  of  the  debates 
upon  the  emancipation  of  the  West  Indian  slaves,  "grew  up 
amidst  the  scenes  of  tyranny  which  are  described  in  the  sixth 
Satire  of  Juvenal.  It  recognized  the  institution  of  slavery.  How 
can  it  be  said  to  be  essentially  adverse  to  that  institution  }  " 
This  question  ought  to  be  fairly  met.  What  is  the  answer  .?  The 
Epistle  to  Philemon,  I  think,  supplies  it.  St.  Paul,  in  his  letters 
to  the  Churches,  had  not  proclaimed  that  slaves  were  free  from 
their  masters,  had  not  insisted  on  masters  dismissing  their  slaves ; 
he  had  simply  said  that  they  were  brothers.  Here  he  explains 
th'at  position.  He  calls  upon  a  master  to  receive  back  a  run- 
away slave,  as  bbth  a  servant  and  a  brother.  He  might,  he  says 
command  him  to  do  this  as  an  Apostle ;  but  he  begs  it  for  the 
love  of  Christ,  and  for  the  love  which  Philemon  bears  to  him, 
the  bondsman  of  Christ,  because  such  entreaties  are  mightier 
than  commands.     Here  is  the  method  of  the  Apostle  and  of  the 


THE    EPISTLE    TO    PHILEMON.  463 

Church  for  destroying  slavery.  They  strike  at  the  root  of  it,  by 
proclaiming  that  a  man  can  never  be  a  thing,  a  chattel.  But  they 
strike  not  merely  at  a  particular  arrangement  which  has  intro- 
duced that  accursed  notion  and  canonized  it,  but  at  every  other 
which  interferes  with  the  recognition  of  God's  Fatherhood,  and 
Christ's  Brotherhood,  and  with  the  indwelling  of  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  in  men,  to  the  end  that  their  true  manhood  may  be  called 
forth  in  them. 

And  thus  we  see  how  the  principle  which  we  have  traced 
through  all  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  "  It  pleased  God  to  reveal 
His  Son  in  me,  that  I  might  preach  Him  among  the  Gentiles," 
is  the  law  of  this  Epistle  also.  And  we  see,  how  every  theory 
which  limits  this  doctrine  to  the  Church,  and  so  prevents  the 
Church  from  being  the  witness  of  it  to  the  world,  destroys  its 
meaning  and  effect.  If  Christ  is  not  in  every  man.  Christians 
can.  Christians  will,  treat  all  as  chattels,  or  worse  than  chattels, 
who  do  not  bear  their  name.  Very  soon  they  will  feel  they  have 
a  right  to  treat  men  as  chattels,  or  worse  than  chattels,  if  they  do 
bear  their  name.  No  faith  will  be  kept  with  heretics.  For  what 
has  a  heretic  to  do  with  Christ  ?  No  fai'th  will  be  kept  with  those 
we  think  ungodly,  or  who  differ  from  us.  For  what  have  they 
to  do  with  Christ  ?  Thus  we  proceed,  in  our  zeal  for  Christ,  to 
destroy  all  the  life  and  morality  which  He  has  brought  into  the 
world,  and  we  are  obliged  to  invent  a  new  morality  of  our  own 
to  supply  that  we  have  lost.  May  God  grant  that  the  earnest 
and  faithful  study  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  and  the  discovery  in 
what  perfect  harmony  they  are  with  every  part  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, may  deliver  us  and  our  children  from  this  unspeakable 
danger,  and  strengthen  us  in  the  true  faith  of  God's  elect  I 


CONCLUSION, 


In  my  Lectures  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  I  made  no 
attempt  to  settle  the  question  whether  St.  Paul  is  or  is  not  the 
author  of  it.  Now  that  we  have  considered  all  the  other  Epis- 
tles which  are  attributed  to  him,  we  might  be  better  fitted  to 
pursue  that  inquiry.  But  I  still  feel  it,  as  I  did  when  I  was  ex- 
amining the  disputed  letter  itself,  so  entirely  secondary,  so  com- 
paratively insignificant,  that  I  am  not  willing  to  enter  upon  it,  at 
the  close  of  a  volume  which  has  been  devoted  to  the  immeasura- 
bly more  important  object  of  pointing  out  the  essential  agree- 
ment of  the  first  three  Gospels,  of  the  Epistles  of  St.  James  and 
St.  Peter,  and  of  all  the  letters  which  we  are  wont  to  ascribe  to 
St.  Paul  with  each  other,  and  with  the  principles  that  are  un- 
folded in  a  book  so  unlike  them  all,  in  form  and  style,  as  that 
with  which  I  commenced.  I  have  wished  to  show  that  the  sim- 
plest Evangelist  is  occupied  in  setting  forth  that  Son  of  God  and 
Son  of  Man  who  is  the  subject  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews ; 
that  the  Evangelists,  like  the  writer  of  the  Epistle,  look  upon  the 
acts  of  Jesus  as  the  fulfilment  of  the  Old  Testament,  not  because 
they  corresponded  to  certain  express  predictions  in  it,  but  be- 
cause they  manifested  Him  who  was  implied  in  all  the  Jewish 
institutions,  Him  whom  the  Prophets  learnt  from  those  institu- 
tions to  regard  as  already  the  Mediator  between  God  and  man 
— the  King,  High  Priest,  Prophets,  from  whom  all  their  kings, 
priests,  prophets,  derived  their  functions  and  their  light ;  that 
the  first  three  Evangelists  looked  upon  the  time  in  which  they 
were  living,  just  as  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  did,  as  the  winding 
up  of  an  age  which  was  to  be  terminated  by  a  signal   judgment, 


CONCLUSION.  465 

and  that  they  expected,  as  he  did,  that  this  judgment  would  in- 
troduce another  age,  the  revelation  of  that  kingdom  of  heaven 
of  which  their  Lord  had  been  speaking  in  all  His  discourses ; 
that  the  Apostles  of  the  circumcision,  as  well  as  the  Apostle 
Paul,  dwell  upon  an  apostasy  which  was  likely  to  precede  the 
end,  and  which  would,  in  some  remarkable  way,  affect  the 
Church,  the  Jewish  nation,  and  the  heathen  world. 

But  if  these  facts  prove  the  unity  of  all  these  writers  in  the 
New  Testament,  a  unity  arising  out  of  their  common  testimony 
to  the  Son  of  God  and  to  His  kingdom,  we  have  been  equally 
obliged  to  acknowledge  their  diversity,  that  each  Evangelist  con- 
templated his  Lord  under  a  peculiar  aspect,  that  St.  James  and 
St.  Peter,  though  they  are  commonly  classed  together,  had  each 
his  own  character  and  function,  that  St.  Paul  was  markedly  dif- 
ferent from  both  of  them.  It  has  been  a  great  point  too  with  us 
to  ascertain  what  was  his  characteristical  principle  and  work, 
how  it  is  that  he  has  seemed  to  be  at  variance  with  the  original 
twelve,  what  it  is  that  connects  his  letters  together,  though  they 
are  addressed  to  churches  and  persons  so  exceedingly  dissimilar, 
and  though  each  letter  is  manifestly  adapted  to  those  for  whom 
it  is  written.  I  have  not  been  at  all  unwilling  to  seek  help  from 
the  name  which  has  been  given  to  him  in  all  ages  of  the  Church. 
He  is  emphatically,  he  declares  himself  to  be,  the  teacher  of  the 
Gentiles.  But  that  name  itself  requires  explanation.  If  we  take 
it  to  signify  that  he  undervalued  his  Jewish  calling,  that  he  did 
not  profit  by  his  education  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel,  that  he  did 
not  invite  Jews  into  the  fold  and  call  them  to  acknowledge  the 
Son  of  David  before  he  turned  to  Greeks  or  Romans,  his  acts,  as 
much  as  his  writings,  will  confute  us.  In  like  manner  I  am  most 
thankful  for  the  hint  which  is  supplied  by  our  Protestant  tradi- 
tion, that  he,  above  all  men,  is  the  teacher  of  Justification  by 
Faith.  The  unspeakable  worth  of  that  doctrine  has  come  out  to 
us,  more  and  more  clearly,  as  w^e  have  studied  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans  and  that  to  the  Galatians.  But  if  we  put  any  notion  or 
dogma  about  Justification,  before  the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ 
who  was  made  of  the  seed  of  David   according  to  the  flesh,  and 

30 


466  LECTURE   II. 

declaied  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power  by  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead,  we  found  that  the  meaning  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Ro- 
mans escaped  us,  and  that  the  Gospel  which  he  preached  became 
a  dead  letter,  not  a  power  of  God  unto  salvation.  And  if  for  the 
sake  of  bringing  forth  the  Protestant  or  Lutheran  principle  into 
greater  prominence,  we  overlooked  these  words  in  the  Epistle  to 
the  Galatians,  "It  pleased  God  to  reveal  His  Son  in  me,  that  I 
might  preach  Him  among  the  Gentiles,"  the  intention  and  cohe- 
rency of  that  Epistle  perished ;  and  so  far  from  having  vindi- 
cated Luther,  we  emptied  his  teaching  of  all  its  life.  Whereas 
if  we  took  that  passage  as  the  interpreter  of  St.  Paul's  mind  and 
purpose,  we  were  able  to  understand  that  he  was  the  Apostle  of 
the  Gentiles,  inasmuch  as  he  was  the  Apostle  of  Hiunanity,  that 
he  was  the  preacher  of  Justification,  inasmuch  as  he  testified 
that  Christ  the  Son  of  God  and  the  Son  of  David  had  justified 
Man  by  rising  from  the  dead,  that  the  baptized  Church  was  the 
witness  of  this  Justification,  that  each  man  by  believing  in  Him 
who  had  risen  from  the  dead,  became  himself  a  justified  and 
righteous  man.  And  so  the  mystery  which  he  speaks  of  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  as  hidden  from  ages  and  generations  in 
Christ,  but  now  as  made  manifest,  that  the  Gentiles  are  fellow- 
heirs  and  of  the  same  body  ;  the  mystery  of  Jesus  Christ  and 
Him  crucified,  as  the  wisdom  and  power  of  God,  as  the  living 
bond  of  human  fellowship,  which  he  announces  to  the  Corinth- 
ians ;  the  mystery  of  Christ's  resurrection  being  the  o.bject  of  all 
his  strivings,  as  he  told  the  Philippians  it  was  ;  the  mystery  of 
Christ  being  in  us,  the  hope  of  glory  which  he  unfolded  to  the 
Colossians  ;  the  mystery  of  the  unveiling  of  Christ  as  the  judg- 
ment and  deliverance  of  the  world,  which  he  set  before  the  Thes- 
salonians  ;  the  mystry  of  Christ  the  Mediator  between  God  and 
man,  the  ransom  for  all  to  be  declared  in  due  time,  which  was 
to  be  the  subject  of  his  son  Timothy's  preaching,  the  ground  of 
his  office,  the  hope  of  his  daily  life  ;  the  mystery  of  that  kindness 
and  love  of  God  our  Saviour  towards  man,  by  which  Titus  was 
to  deliver  the  Cretans  from  their  moral  debasement ;  the  mystery 
of  Christ  the  Brother  of  man,  which  broke  the  chains  of  Onesi- 


CONCLUSION.  467 

mus, — belong  alike  to  the  same  Pauline  message,  betoken  not 
merely  the  same  divine  and  universal  Teacher,  but  the  same  hu 
man  agent. 

If,  therefore,  those  who  deny  St.  Paul  to  be  the  author  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  merely  rest  that  denial  upon  some  pecu- 
liarities of  style  which  they  think  cannot  belong  to  the  Jew  of 
Tarsus,  or  upon  the  weight  which  is  due  to  the  authority  of  the 
Alexandrian  fathers,  and  of  the  fathers  in  the  West  who  agreed 
with  them,  or  upon  any  points  of  external  evidence  whatsoever, 
I  shall  not  argue  the  matter  with  them  ;  partly  because  I  am 
almost  indifferent  about  the  decision  of  the  point ;  partly  be- 
cause I  know  how  much  we  may  be  affected  in  the  examination 
of  such  arguments  by  our  previous  habits  of  mind  ;  partly  be- 
cause I  esteem  their  learning  much  more  highly  than  my  own. 
But  if  they  put  forth  this  argument,  that  Paul  being  the  Apostle 
of  the  Gentiles,  was  not  likely  to  address  a  letter  to  the  Hebrews, 
or  that  if  he  did,  he  was  almost  sure  to  dwell  very  particularly 
upon  the  calling  of  the  Gentiles  and  their  privileges  in  the 
Church,  I  put  in  my  demurrer  ;  I  say  that  it  is  most  important 
for  the  understanding  of  St.  Paul's  mind,  to  remember  that  he 
looked  upon  his  vocation  to  be  a  preacher  among  the  Gentiles  as 
the  carrying  out  of  the  promise  made  to  Abraham — that  he 
adapted  himself  to  the  condition  and  circumstances  of  every 
people  to  whom  he  wrote — that  his  doctrine  respecting  Christ  as 
the  Man  who  fulfils  the  promise  made  to  man,  that  he  should 
have  dominion  over  all  creatures,  and  should  be  made  a  little 
lower  than  the  angels  that  he  might  be  crowned  with  glory  and 
honor — is  the  characteristic  doctrine  of  all  his  Epistles.  Or  if  it 
is  contended,  that  the  Apostle  Paul  must  have  written  formally 
about  justification  by  faith,  and  would  not  have  talked  as  he  does 
in  this  Epistle,  of  kings,  and  priests,  and  sabbath-days,  and  the 
temple  and  the  sacrifice,  I  protest  against  this  objection  as  based 
upon  a  theory  which  contracts  and  misrepresents  the  purpose  of 
all  St.  Paul's  writings,  and  makes  them  ineffective  for  the  defence 
of  that  vital  truth,  within  the  formal  limits  of  which  it  seeks  to 
confine  them. 


468  LECTURE     II. 

This  is  all  that  I  am  disposed  to  say,  on  the  mere  question  of 
authorship.  But  I  cannot  conclude  without  some  allusion  to 
those  distinctive  characters  of  this  Epistle  which  are  supposed, 
and  rightly  supposed,  not  to  be  equally  prominent  in  any  other. 
Although  the  idea  of  Sacrifice  has  been  present  in  every  letter, 
in  every  line — which  we  have  read  of  St.  Paul,  it  is  quite  evident 
that  nowhere  is  the  idea  developed,  as  it  is  in  this  Epistle. 
Though  I  have  shown,  in  my  Lectures,  that  it  does  not  stand 
alone,  but  is  connected  with  all  the  institutions  of  the  Jewish 
nation,  the  ordinary  feeling  that  it  occupies  the  central  place 
among  these  institutions,  and  therefore  the  central  place  in  the 
book  which  expounds  them,  is  justified  the  more  we  reflect  upon 
it.  Though  I  have  been  careful  to  show  that  the  Son  of  God 
and  the  Son  of  Man  who  is  brought  before  us  in  the  first  and 
second  chapters  of  the  Epistle,  is  the  subject  of  it,  as  he  is  of 
every  other  part  of  the  New  Testament,  and  that  a  doctrine  of 
Sacrifice  must  not  be  substituted  for  Him  here,  more  than  a  doc- 
trine of  Justification  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  it  is  yet  most 
obvious  that  this  Person  especially  is  brought  before  us  here  in 
His  twofold  character  of  Priest  and  Sacrifice,  that  His  other 
characters,  though  not  merged  in  these,  are  yet  in  some  sense 
subordinate  to  them.  Far  from  wishing  to  overlook  these  facts, 
I  would  earnestly  call  the  reader's  attention  to  them.  Whether 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  is  St.  Paul's  or  not,  it  is  necessary,  I 
think,  to  complete  the  circle  of  thoughts  into  which  St.  Paul  in- 
troduces us.  It  is  necessary,  as  showing  us  the  deep  common 
ground  of  those  societies,  each  of  which  had  a  distinct  purpose 
and  function  in  God's  kingdom.  It  is  necessary  that  we  may 
understand  how  each  nation,  and  the  particular  Church  which 
represented  its  character,  was  connected  with  that  one  Nation, 
the  foundations  of  which  had  been  laid  in  God's  eternal  and 
righteous  Will,  and  in  the  surrender  and  sacrifice  of  man's  will 
to  it.  It  is  needful  to  show  us,  how  impossible  it  was  that  the 
intention  of  that  nation's  calling  could  be  fulfilled,  or  that  it 
could  be  reconciled  with  other  nations,  till  there  was  some  One 
who,  being  an  heir  of  David,  could  say  in  stooping  to  the  death 


CONCLUSION.  469 

which  was  common  to  the  Gentile  and  the  Jew,  "  Lo,  I  come,  in 
the  volume  of  the  book  it  is  written  of  me,  to  do  thy  will,  O 
God  ; "  one  who  through  the  eternal  Spirit  offered  Himself  with- 
out spot  to  God,  that  we,  being  purged  from  dead  works,  might 
serve  the  living  God.  It  was  needful,  that  we  might  know  how 
a  spiritual  and  universal  polity  might  be  raised  out  of  the  ruins 
of  a  legal  and  national  polity,  and  might  in  due  time  make  each 
nation  capable  of  institutions  more  truly  divine,  of  a  life  more 
orderly  and  free,  than  had  ever  belonged  to  the  Hebrew.  It  is 
needful,  I  think,  that  we  may  be  able  to  connect  the  varied  as- 
pects of  humanity  which  we  find  in  St.  Paul,  with  the  profound 
and  simple  theology  of  the  Apostle  John,  and  with  his  vision  of 
the  New  Jerusalem  descending  from  heaven,  as  a  bride  adorned 
for  her  husband. 


THE 
EPISTLE  TO  THE  HEBREWS, 

BEING   THE   SUBSTANCE   OF 

THREE  LECTURES 

DELIVERED  IN  THE  CHAPEL  OF  THE  HONORABLE  SOCIETY  OF  LINCOLN'S  INN 

ON   THE 

FOUNDATION  OF  BISHOP  WARBURTON. 


LECTURE   I. 

HOW  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  FULFILS  THE  OLD. 


HEBREWS  I.   1—4. 

God.  who  at  su7idry  times  and  in  divers  manners  spake  in  time 
past  imto  the  fathers  by  the  prophets^  hath  i?i  these  last  days 
spoken  unto  us  by  a  So?i,  whom  he  hath  appointed  heir  of  all 
things^  by  whom  also  he  made  the  worlds ;  who  being  the  bright- 
7iess  of  his  glory ^  and  the  express  image  of  his  person^  and  up- 
holding all  things  by  the  word  of  his  power,  when  he  had  by  him- 
self purged  our  sins,  sat  down  on  the  right  hand  of  the  Majesty 
on  high  ;  being  made  so  much  better  than  the  angels,  as  he  hath 
by  inheritance  obtained  a  more  excellent  name  than  they. 

Christian  apologists  have  perhaps  been  inclined  to  overrate 
the  effect  of  the  argument  for  the  divine  origin  of  their  faith 
which  is  deduced  from  its  small  beginnings  and  its  wide  diffu- 
sion. No  doubt  the  facts  upon  which  this  argument  is  founded 
must  make  a  great  impression  upon  any  one  to  whom  they  are 
presented  for  the  first  time.  A  thoughtful  man  listens  to  the 
words  :  "  Jesus ^  walking  by  the  sea  of  Galilee,  saw  two  brethren^ 
(470) 


THE    EPISTLE     TO    THE    HEBREWS.  47 1 

Simon  called  Peter,  and  And?'ew  his  brother,  casting  a  net  into  the  sea, 
for  they  were  fishers.  And  he  saith  imto  them,  Follow  me  and  I  will 
make  y  OIL  fishers  of  7nen.  A?id  they  st7'aightivay  left  their  nets,  a?td 
followed  him.''  He  remembers  that  he  is  hearing  this  narration 
in  the  capital  perhaps  of  some  country  in  the  West,  inhabited  by  a 
people  altogether  unlike  in  manners,  government,  knowledge,  to 
that  which  dwelt  beside  the  sea  of  Galilee  ;  a  people  neverthe- 
less which  has  for  centuries  reverenced  the  names  of  Andrew 
and  Peter,  and  received  these  records  of  their  lives  as  oracles. 
Or  as  he  hears  the  Gospel  for  xA.dvent  Sunday,  he  may  reflect 
how  One  who  entered  upon  an  ass  into  the  chief  city  of  a  section 
of  a  province  of  the  Roman  empire,  amidst  the  shouts  of  a  few 
of  its  poorest  inhabitants, — to  be  cast  out  presently  after  as  an 
ignominious  and  blasphemous  pretender  by  its  rulers  and  great 
men, — to  be  mocked  and  put  to  death  by  their  heathen  masters, 
has  been  acknowledged  as  King  of  the  World  by  the  most  en- 
lightened part  of  the  empire  which  Tiberius  ruled,  and  by  nations 
unknown  to  him.  Thoughts  of  this  kind  may  lead  to  the  ques- 
tions :  Whence  came  this  wonder  ?  To  what  power  should  it  be 
attributed  ?  But  quite  as  often,  when  the  sensation  of  surprise 
has  worn  off,  they  suggest  a  very  different  kind  of  speculations. 
The  contrast  between  the  actual  state  of  Christendom  and  the 
character  of  the  Book  to  which  it  appeals  as  the  charter  of  its 
foundation,  seems  so  great  as  to  destroy  all  practical  connection 
between  them.  "  These  Jewish  records,"  it  is  asked,  "  and  this 
European  world  of  ours,  what  have  they  really  in  common  ? 
Something  may  have  been  bequeathed  by  them  to  us, — but  what 
can  they  tell  us  of  the  changes  which  have  taken  place  even  in 
that  belief  which  we  have  received  from  them  1  How  can  they 
give  us  any  information  respecting  the  effects  which  mixture 
with  the  habits  and  feelings  of  different  races,  the  progress  of 
society,  new  discoveries,  and'  greater  degeneracy,  may  have 
wrought  in  it  "i  How,  for  instance,  can  they  explain  the  secret, 
that  Christendom  should  be  divided  about  the  meaning  of  its  own 
existence, — that  one  portion  of  the  European  nations  should 
confine    the    name    to    themselves — that  the  others  should    de- 


472  LECTURE    I. 

nounce  these  as  having  departed  from  the  principle  upon  which 
the  name  rests  ?  "  Such  questions  were  often  put  in  Bishop  War- 
burton's  days.  He  foresaw  that  they  would  not  cease  to  be  put 
in  ours.  He  believed  that  they  could  be  answered.  He  desired 
that  his  Lecturers  should  resolutely  face  the  whole  difficulty  ; 
that  they  should  assert  the  truth  of  the  Christian  Religion  on 
the  very  ground  of  the  correspondence  between  the  Prophecies 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  and  the  history  of  the  Christian 
Church ;  that  they  should  not  shrink  from  what  might  seem  the 
most  embarrassing  part  of  the  problem,  but  should  especially 
devote  their  attention  to  the  subject  of  the  Romish  Apostasy. 

These  injunctions  may  perhaps  be  literally  complied  with  if  we 
consider  prophecy  as  contained  in  certain  words,  and  look  for 
the  fulfilment  of  it  in  certain  isolated  events.  But  the  Bishop 
seems  certainly  to  have  intended  that  we  should  examine  the 
character  and  context  of  later  history;  and  I  question  whether 
we  can  enter  much  into  the  meaning  of  the  Jewish  Prophets 
unless  we  examine  the  character  and  context  of  their  national 
history.  It  is  not  their  main  office  to  unfold  the  future  :  first  of 
all  they  explain  the  present ;  they  told  their  countrymen  what 
was  implied  in  their  actual  position^  and  how  they  had  abused 
it ;  with  what  significance  every  thing  about  them  was  pregnant ; 
how  unmeaning  their  lives  had  become.  We  wrong  them  griev- 
ously when  we  deal  with  their  words  as  if  they  were  oracles 
uttered  in  some  moment  of  wild  inspiration  ;  with  their  books 
as  if  they  were  a  collection  of  Sibylline  leaves.  The  power 
which  they  possess  of  announcing  that  which  must  be,  seems  to 
be  involved  in  their  divine  gift  of  perceiving  the  eternal  under 
the  temporary — the  substance  through  the  shadow  :  for  they  are 
certain  that  the  counsel  of  the  Lord  will  stand  ;  the  unwilling- 
ness of  men  to  recognize  his  purpose  will  not  frustrate  it;  in 
acts  of  mercy  and  judgments  he  will  unfold  it  more  and  more 
clearly  to  the  Heart  of. the  true  Israelite;  iri  due  time  it  will  be 
fulfilled. 

This  fulfilment  then  would  seem  to  be  the  accomplishment  of 
a  purpose  or  idea  which  had  been  latent  in  earlier  times ;   which 


THE     EPISTLE    TO    THE    HEBREWS.  4/3 

had  been  gradually  making  itself  manifest  to  the  divinely  in- 
structed Teachers  ;  through  them  to  as  many  as  profited  by 
their  teaching.  If  this  be  the  case,  we  cannot  be  wrong  if  we 
ask  the  Scriptures  to  tell  us  what  this  divine  purpose  is  ;  by 
what  process  of  edii«.ution  men  in  the  old  time  were  made  con- 
scious of  it ;  what  effects  are  promised  from  the  full  revelation 
of  it.  If  we  are  willing  to  compare  these  expected  results  with 
the  condition  of  the  world  since  the  time  when  the  Scripture 
records  leave  us,  we  at  least  show  that  we  do  not  shrink  from 
the  test  which  the  founder  of  these  Lectures  wished  us  to  use. 
And  this  mode  of  applying  it  may,  I  think,  better  than  any  other, 
meet  the  demands  of  a  modern  historical  student.  In  general 
he  does  not  care  much  for  coincidences ;  those  which  are  pre- 
sented to  him  by  Scriptural  interpreters  he  is  apt  to  regard 
either  as  merely  fortuitous,  or  as  produced  by  an  ingenious  dis- 
tortion of  words  and  facts.  What  he  seeks  for  is  some  law,  which 
may  connect  together  the  different  facts  he  has  observed  in  ec- 
clesiastical or  general  history  ;  he  is  willing  to  hear  whether 
Scripture  recognizes  such  a  law ;  he  will  admit  only  this  proof 
of  its  superiority  to  any  which  has  occurred  to  himself  in  the 
course  of  his  meditations,  that  it  better  explains  the  actual  course 
of  events,  and  more  successfully  clears  away  apparent  anom- 
alies. 

Such  a  student,  however,  may  feel  a  reasonable  distrust  of  any 
one  who  professed  to  extract  from  the  whole  series  of  Biblical 
documents  the  purpose  or  idea  of  Jewish  history,  and  to  watch 
its  rising  from  dawn  to  noonday.  Nor,  I  think,  can  the  distrust 
of  a  looker-on  possibly  equal  that  which  every  one  who  h as-un- 
dertaken the  task,  and  experienced  repeated  discomfitures  in  it, 
must  feel  of  himself.  The  first,  therefore,  may  naturally  ask. 
Can  your  New  Testament  be  what  it  professes  to  be — a  key  to 
the  meaning  of  the  Old — if  it  contains  no  book  especially  de- 
voted to  the  illustration  of  this  subject  ?.  The  latter,  being  con- 
fident that  God  will  not  leave  his  creatures  without  the  neces- 
sary helps  for  knowing  that  which  it  has  pleased  Him  to  reveal, 
will  seek  diligently  to  ascertain  where  he  is  to  look  for  a  guide 


474  LECTURE    I. 

through   this    labyrinth.      And  I  believe  he  will  not  be  long  in 
finding  what  he  seeks. 

There  have  been  differences  of  opinion  from  the  earliest  times 
respecting  the  authorship  of  the  Epistle  to,  the  Hebrews  ;  even 
its  right  to  a  place  in  the  canon  of  Scriptui-^  has  been  disputed. 
But  it  has  never,  I  think,  been  doubted  that  the  writer,  whoever 
he  was,  whatever  weight  is  due  to  his  testimon}^,  intended  to  set 
forth  the  relation  between  a  dispensation  which  he  believed  was 
passing  away  and  one  which  he  believed  was  commencing.  No 
external  evidence  is  required  to  show  that  this  was  his  object; 
it  exhibits  itself  at  every  turn  to  the  most  careless  reader.  To 
an  ordinary  historical  student  of  our  day,  it  is  a  matter  of  indif- 
ference what  the  outward  claims  of  the  book  are  ;  he  may  look 
upon  it  merely  as  the  production  of  a  very  early  Christian  Jo\v, 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  institutions  of  his  country,  loving 
them  affectionately,  yet  convinced  that  a  sentence  of  death  was 
upon  them,  and  that  they  would  not  perish  without  giving  place 
to  something  better.  Considered  in  this  light,  it  must,  I  con- 
ceive, be  very  interesting  ;  it  may  supply  that  key  to  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  other  parts  of  Scriptures  which  we  desire.  Those 
who  are  thoroughly  convinced  of  its  authority  will,  of  course,  ex- 
amine it  with  quite  another  feeling.  They  will  expect  to  find, 
and  gladly  recognize  in  it  if  they  do  find,  a  guiding  light  to  their 
own  inquiries  respecting  the  dealings  of  God  with  man.  What 
help  may  it  afford  to  one  performing  the  office  which  has  been 
committed  to  me,  all  I  think  will  acknowledge  who  know  how 
directly  it  bears  upon  the  leading  points  of  controversy  between 
Protestants  and  Romanists  ;  how  it  forces  us  to  consider  those 
points,  in  their  historical  as  well  as  their  theological  import ; 
above  all,  how  solemn  and  awful  and  practicable  its  character  is, 
reminding  us  that  we  are  occupied  with  realities  which  concern 
our  own  lives,  and  the  life  of  every  human  being  ;  and  restraining, 
if  any  thing  can  restrain,  the  disposition  to  indulge  in  the  hate- 
ful chicaneries  and  pettinesses  of  religious  disputation. 

I  propose  then,  in  my  first  three  Lectures,  to  show  that  the 
writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  sets  forth  a  principle  which 


THE    EPISTLE    TO    THE    HEBREWS.  4/5 

he  affirms  was  implied  in  tlie  Old  Testament,  fulfilled  in  the  New  ; 
that  he  traces  its  gradual  working  and  development  through  the 
former ;  that  he  helps  us  to  understand  what  changes  would  be 
wrought  by  the  full  manifestation  of  it. 

If  I  am  permitted  to  deliver  the  three  Lectures  of  next  year,  I 
propose  to  show  that  under  different  aspects  this  principle  is  the 
central  one  in  the  other  books  of  the  New  Testament  :  in  the 
first  three  Gospels,  in  the  Epistles  of  St.  James,  St.  Peter,  and 
St.  Paul,  and  in  the  different  writings  of  St.  John. 

In  the  third  year,  I  shall  hope  to  apply  this  principle  to  the 
history  of  Christendom,  in  the  period  of  its  growth  out  of  the 
Roman  Empire, — in  the  period  of  its  direct  conflict  with  Mahom- 
medanism,  and  in  what  is  commonly  called  the  Modern  Period, 
dating  from  the  commencement  of  the  fourteenth  century. 

This  inquiry  will  have  brought  us  in^o  direct  contact  with  the 
Romish  system.  But,  in  order  to  complete  the  course,  and  carry 
out  the  intentions  of  the  Founder,  it  will  be  expedient,  in  the 
last  three  Lectures,  to  consider  that  System  formally,  in  reference 
to  the  Scriptural  principle  we  have  been  elucidating,  to  the  work- 
ing of  that  principle  in  the  Church,  and  to  the  future  destinies 
of  the  world. 

The  plan  which  I  have  laid  down  relieves  me  from  the  neces- 
sity of  introducing  my  inquiry  into  the  scope  of  the  Epistle,  by  a 
discussion  respecting  its  author.  Those  learned  men  who  reject 
the  ordinary  tradition,  have  done  so  because  they  think  the  pur- 
pose of  the  writer,  though  it  may  harmonize  with  that  which  they 
discover  in  St.  Paul's  writings,  is  yet  not  identical  with  it ;  diver- 
sities of  style  and  the  opinions  of  several  early  Churches,  espe- 
cially in  the  West,  come  in  to  corroborate  the  conclusion  which 
they  have  formed  upon  this  ground.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
most  obvious  external  differences  have  not  prevented  earnest 
students  from  continuing  to  think  of  it  as  the  work  of  the  Apostle 
to  the  Gentiles,  because  there  has  been  a  persuasion  consciously 
or  unconsciously  in  their  minds,  that  the  object  of  his  life  would 
be  less  intelligible  if  this  letter  were  not  regarded  as  one  ex- 
pression of  it. 


476  LECTURE    I. 

On  every  account,  therefore,  we  should  postpone  this  inquiry 
till  we  have  ascertained  what  the  main  characteristic  of  the 
Epistle  is,  and  are  able  to  compare  it  with  other  parts  of  the  New 
Testament.  Nor  am  I  at  all  afraid  that  the  credit  of  the  letter 
should  suffer  while  this  point  remains  undecided,  or  even  what- 
ever the  decision  upon  it  may  be.  Those  who  have  convinced 
themselves  by  experiment  that  it  binds  the  different  books  of 
Scripture  to  each  other  and  to  the  history  of  mankind,  will  believe 
that  it  is  entitled  to  a  place  among  those  books,  let  the  writer  of 
it  be  who  he  may  (for  the  tone  of  the  Epistle,  its  most  obvious, 
as  well  as  its  most  minute  peculiarities,  determine  it  to  the  apos- 
tolical age) ;  those  v/ho  do  not  care  for  its  contents  will  scarcely 
devote  any  practical  attention  to  it,  though  they  supposed  that 
the  whole  college  of  apostles  had  been  engaged  in  the  composi- 
tion of  it. 

The  questions — to  whom  was  this  letter  addressed,  and  what 
was  the  occasion  that  suggested  it — cannot  be  thus  passed  over, 
for  they  bring  some  of  its  most  striking  peculiarities  immediately 
under  our  notice.  Among  these,  every  one  must  have  observed 
the  exceedingly  earnest  tone  of  the  practical  exhortations.  In  a 
book  possessing  more  of  a  systematical  and  logical  character 
than  any  of  the  writings  of  the  New  Testament,  it  might  have 
been  supposed  that  these  would  be  thrown  into  the  background, 
that  they  would  not  be  allowed  to  interrupt  the  course  of  the 
argument.  But  they  recur  at  every  turn,  they  enter  into  the  very 
substance  of  the  letter,  every  thing  else  seems  subordinate  to 
them.  In  their  character  they  are  different  from  those  we  find 
elsewhere.  They  are  not  simply  warnings  against  certain  evil 
tendencies  or  false  opinions,  such  as  we  meet  within  the  Epistles 
to  the  Corinthians  and  Galatians  ;  they  express  very  distinctly 
the  writer's  fear  that  those  whom  he  is  addressing  are  likely  to 
become  apostates  from  the  faith  of  Christ. 

Persons  who  have  formed  exaggerated  notions  of  the  purity  of 
the  apostolical  churches — notions  certainly  not  derived  from  the 
only  authentic  record  which  we  possess  respecting  them — may 
well  be  startled  when   they  read   such  warnings  as  these.     But 


WARNINGS    OF    APOSTASY.  477 

surely  the  surprise  is  much  heightened  when  we  consider  what 
body  it  was  which  was  thus  addressed.  Other  indications  in  the 
Epistle  leave  us  in  no  doubt.  Its  title — if  we  could  depend  cer- 
tainly upon  its  authority — might  lead  us  to  think  of  those  Jews 
dispersed  over  the  different  provinces  of  the  Roman  empire,  who 
had  believed  Jesus  to  be  the  Christ,  those  whom  St.  Peter  ad- 
dresses in  his  Epistle.  But  if  these  Jews  were  not  absent  from 
the  mind  of  the  writer  (and  it  is  difficult  to  suppose  any  part  of 
his  nation  absent  from  his  mind),  they  were  not  the  persons  to 
whom  a  letter  especially  concerning  the  worship  of  the  temple, 
the  priesthood,  and  the  holy  city,  would  most  apply.  Such  ob- 
jects might  be  present  to  the  imagination  of  the  distant  Jew ; 
they  were  constantly  present  to  the  eyes  of  those  who  dwelt  in 
Palestine.  We  must  then  believe  they  were  the  members  of  the 
mother-church  of  the  world,  the  successors  or  survivors  of  those 
who  were  baptized  when  the  Spirit  descended  on  the  day  of  Pen- 
tecost, of  whom  the  fear  was  entertained  by  one  who  knew  them 
and  loved  them  well,  that  their  faith  was  becoming  daily  weaker, 
and  that  they  were  in  danger  of  losing  it  altogether. 

And  yet  it  is  remarkable  that  these  Hebrew  Christians,  are  not 
charged  with  open  and  conscious  departure  from  any  truth  which 
had  been  delivered  to  them  by  their  early  teachers,  with  any  ap- 
parent abandonment  of  the  duties  belonging  to  their  own  pecu- 
liar position.  The  one  complaint  of  them  is,  that  they  had  been 
content  with  their  first  imperfect  appreheixsio.ns,  that  they  had 
not  labored  after  a  fuller  and  deeper  knowledge  ;  that  they  were 
still  eating  the  food  of  children,  when,  by  reason  of  their  years, 
they  ought  to  be  capable  of  that  which  nourishes  men.  This,  the 
writer  of  the  letter  intimates,  was  their  characteristic  vice.  It 
may  seem  to  be  anything  but  of  a  deadly  kind  ;  their  friendly 
teacher  is  most  willing  to  believe  that  it  is  not ;  still  he  could 
trace  too  many  indications  of  the  decay  of  Christian  belief  and 
energy,  which  had  been  the  effect  of  it,  to  doubt  that  if  it  were 
suffered  to  grow,  all  the  culture  they  had  received  from  apostles 
and  martyrs  would  be  utterly  in  vain. 

The  grounds  of   this  fear  it  must  be  well  worth  while  to  ascer- 


4/8  LECTURE    I. 

tain  for  our   own  profit,  as  well  as  for    the    illustration  of  the 
Epistle. 

,  I.  We  should  always  recollect  that  the  Jews  who  believed 
Jesus  to  be  the  Christ,  looked  upon  themselves  as  the  real  Jews  ; 
their  countrymen  they  charged  with  rejecting  the  true  heir  of 
David,  Him  who  had  come  to  fulfil  the  covenant  made  to  their 
fathers.  When,  therefore,  the  apostles,  after  the  day  of  Pente- 
cost, went  up  into  the  temple  at  the  hour  of  prayer,  this  was  no 
concession  to  the  prejudices  of  others,  no  conformity  to  an  in- 
veterate habit.  They  felt  that  none  could  have  more  share  in 
the  worship  of  that  Temple  than  they  had.  While  the  Priests  and 
Levites  permitted  sheep  and  oxen  to  be  sold  in  it,  their  Master 
had  driven  them  all  out,  because  He  would  not  have  his  Father's 
house  turned  into  a  house  of  merchandise.  He  had  warned 
them  indeed  that  the  time  would  come  when  net  one  stone  of 
this  building  should  remain  upon  another  ;  and  every  thing  which 
had  taken  place  since  the  prediction  was  given,  made  them  sure 
that  some  awful  judgment  must  be  overhanging  their  nation. 
But  they  were  not  to  anticipate  this  judgment  :  while  the  Temple 
stood,  it  was  God's  temple  ;  while  the  sacrifices  were  offered, 
they  were  the  sacrifices  which  he  had  appointed.  St.  Stephen, 
undoubtedly,  may  have  uttered  words  which  offered  an  excuse 
for  the  charge,  that  he  had  said  the  Temple  and  the  customs 
which  Moses  had  delivered  would  be  abolished  ;  but  we  cannot 
in  the  least  gather  from  his  defence  that  he  thought  the  present 
use  of  either  was  to  be  abandoned  :  rather,  we  perceive  his  deep 
reverence  for  them,  as  the  shrines  of  a  presence  which  their 
fathers  and  they,  because  they  were  uncircumcised  in  heart,  had 
been  despising.  No  change  was  produced  in  this  feeling  by  St. 
Peter's  visit  to  Cornelius ;  the  opposition  to  it  showed  how 
thoroughly  Jewish  the  disciples  were  ;  nor,  when  they  yielded  to 
the  Divine  demonstration,  did  they  recognize  in  it  any  thing  else 
than  a  fulfilment  of  the  jDromise,  that  the  Seed  of  David  should 
reign  over  the  Gentiles. 

The  mixture  of  Greek  proselytes  with  the  regular  Hebrews  in 
the  Church   of  Antioch,  and   the  common   name   of  Christians 


THE    TRUE    ISRAELITE.  479 

which  was  given  to  them,  doubtless  by  the  heathen  inhabitants, 
no  further  affected  the  Jerusalem  Christians  than  as  they  were 
led,  perhaps,  more  zealously  to  avail  themselves  of  the  privileges 
of  their  own  position.  This  effect  was  certainly  produced  by  the 
report  which  reached  them  that  St.  Paul  had  founded  societies 
composed  even  more  of  Gentiles  than  of  Jews  ;  that  he  had  or- 
dained elders  and  deacons  over  them,  had  addressed  each  of 
them  as  an  Ecclesia,  a  body  called  out  or  elected,  language  which 
seemed  strangely  to  interfere  with  the  idea  of  the  children  of 
Abraham  as  the  elect  separated  family.  Yet  St.  Paul  had  in 
every  city  gone  first  into  the  synagogue  ;  the  ground  of  his 
churches  was  Jewish ;  he,  as  much  as  any  apostle,  had  spoken  of 
the  promises  made  to  the  fathers  ;  he  too  went  up  to  the  feasts 
and  purified  himself  in  the  temple.  From  the  conversation 
which  is  recorded  in  the  twent.y-first  chapter  of  the  Acts,  it  is  evi- 
dent that  St.  James,  who  was  the  presiding  apostle  over  the  Jeru- 
salem church,  not  only  obeyed  strictly  the  injunctions  of  the 
Mosaic  law,  but  practised  those  portions  of  the  ritual  which  were 
merely  permissive  and  voluntary.  The  testimonies  respecting 
him,  from  the  Jewish  historian  and  the  oldest  Christian  annalist, 
abundantly  confirm  this  conclusion.  They  agree  in  representing 
him  as  one  for  whom  the  Jewish  people  at  large  had  the  deepest 
reverence.  He  was  felt  to  be  the  righteous  man  of  the  city  by 
all  the  parties  which  existed  in  it.  His  practical  holiness  was 
assuredly  the  strongest  witness  which  could  have  been  borne 
against  the  formalism  of  the  Pharisee,  and  the  heathenism  of  the 
Sadducee — against  the  infinite  religious  divisions  and  deep  moral 
debasement  of  his  nation.  It  was  a  witness  that  the  disciples  of 
Jesus  were  not,  as  their  adversaries  called  them,  a  Nazarene 
sect,  seeking  to  bind  themselves  by  a  new  name.  It  was  a  wit- 
ness for  the  sacredness  of  the  old  dispensation  ;  the  absence  of 
which  would  have  turned  the  Gospel  into  a  mere  speculation,  and 
would  have  made  the  other  preachers  of  it  unintelligible  to  those 
who  most  professed  to  admire  them. 

Yet  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand  how  persons  calling  them- 
selves the  disciples  of  St.  James,  and  fancying  themselves  such, 


480  LECTURE    I. 

because  they  were  vehement  partisans  of  what  the}'  supposed  to 
be  his  doctrine,  might  pervert,  nay,  invert,  his  example.  What 
in  him  was  a  thankful  determination  to  use  all  the  blessings 
which  had  been  given  him  as  a  Jew,  that  he  might  enter  into 
closer  communion  with  the  Lord  of  the  whole  earth,  would 
become  in  them  a  determination  not  to  associate  with  uncircum- 
cised  people.  What  was  in  him  sanctification  from  the  habits  of 
a  divided  and  exclusive  world,  would  be  in  them  exclusiveness 
and  division  in  another  form  and  under  another  pretext.  What 
in  him  was  the  acknowledgment  of  his  Master  as  the  Divine  Ful- 
filler  of  the  Covenant  to  Abraham  and  David,  would  be  in  them 
a  notion  of  Him  as  merely  the  servant  of  that  Covenant.  And 
yet  this  mighty  difference  may  have  been  quite  imperceptible  to 
these  Jewish  Christians.  The  phrases  which  denoted  their  state 
of  mind  might  be  those  which  they  had  borrowed  from  St,  James; 
their  feelings  of  reverence  for  holy  places,  and  of  affection  for 
their  Jewish  calling,  might  seem  to  be  the  very  transcript  of  his. 
But  the  contrast  would  appear  in  the  whole  tone  of  their  lives  ; 
above  all,  it  would  reveal  itself  after  his  death  to  those  who  ex- 
pected, as  he  did,  the  destruction  of  the  City  and  Temple — who 
felt  that  the  loss  of  such  an  intercessor,  and  the  crime  which  had 
occasioned  it,  must  hasten  the  coming  judgment.  These  persons 
will  have  seen  that  while  he  by  his  words  and  life  was  preparing 
himself,  and,  so  far  as  he  was  able,  his  flock,  for  this  judgment, 
it  would  overtake  his  pretended  admirers  as  a  thief  in  the  night. 
Those  Jewish  institutions  which  they  had  been  connecting  with 
all  their  devotions,  all  their  hopes, — for  the  sake  of  which  they 
had  forsaken  the  assembling  of  themselves  together  as  members 
of  a  Christian  community,  would  pass  away  with  a  great  noise. 
Where  would  they  be  found  after  such  an  earthquake  ?  What 
faith  had  they  which  could  survive  it  ? 

2.  But  it  would  be  doing  these  Christian  Jews  great  injustice 
to  suppose  that  they  merely  contemplated  the  preservation  of 
the  Jewish  polity,  with  all  the  miserable  accidents  by  which  it 
was  now  surrounded.  They  knew  how  the  priesthood  had  been 
degraded  by  the   Herodian   family,  and   how  continually  it  had 


THE    EBIONITE    NOTION.  48 1 

been  a  mere  tool  of  the  Roman  procurator  ;  they  knew  that  the 
law  had  been  depraved  by  Pharisaical  traditions  ;  they  knew  that 
the  whole  of  society  was  in  a  more  thoroughly  evil  condition 
than  it  had  been  in  the  days  of  Jeremiah,  before  the  great  cap- 
tivity. But  had  not  Christ  come  to  restore  the  tabernacle  which 
was  fallen  down  ?  Had  he  not  declared  the  true  sense  and 
spirit  of  the  law  ?  Had  he  not,  by  the  poverty  of  his  life,  borne 
witness  for  a  more  than  patriarchal  simplicity.? 

Thoughts  exceedingly  like  these  must  often  have  been  pre- 
sented by  St.  James  to  his  disciples.  In  them  lay  the  deepest 
truth.  It  seemed  as  if  they  could  scarcely  be  turned  to  an  evil 
use.  And  yet  how  easy  it  was  to  dwell  on  the  words — Reformer 
and  Restorer — till  the  significance  of  these  same  words  was 
utterly  lost.  If  Christ  were  only  what  they  intimated.  He  might 
have  told  certain  great  truths  ;  He  might  have  hinted  at  great 
and  desirable  improvements  in  men's  social  condition  :  but  He 
had  accomplished  nothing.  He  might  be  greater  than  all  pre- 
vious teachers  :  but  the  universe,  and  men,  and  their  connection 
with  God,  were  still  a  riddle.  All  the  questions  which  men  had 
been  asking  themselves  for  so  many  centuries — all  that  had  been 
implied  in  the  existence  of  laws  and  governments,  of  priesthoods 
and  sacrifices,  had  not  been  practically  explained  by  this  great 
Prophet.  There  had  been  a  vision  of  something  bright  and  good 
in  the  world,  which  could  not,  doubtless,  pass  away,  without 
leaving  some  shadows  behind.  But  it  had  passed  away,  and  that 
with  which,  in  the  minds  of  these  Hebrew  Christians,  it  was  in- 
separably interwoven,  would  pass  away  also.  If  it  were  so,  then 
the  Covenant  with  Abraham,  and  all  the  institutions  of  which 
they  spoke  so  much,  seemed  to  have  been  but  pompous  inani- 
ties ;  they  had  promised  much,  and  performed  almost  nothing. 

Would  not  these  reflections  force  themselves  more  and  more 
upon  the  minds  of  those  who  used  this  language  ?  Would  not 
they  receive  an  awful  interpretation,  a  seeming  confirmation, 
from  the  day  which  was  at  hand.  Must  they  not  look  forward  to 
that  day,  not  as  a  day  of  redemption,  but  as  one  of  discomfiture 
and  dismay  ?     When   it  actually  came,  would  they  not  be  found 


482  LECTURE    I. 

to  have  lost,  not  only  their  Christian,  but  even  their  Jewish  posi- 
tion ? 

3.  The  habit  of  mind  I  spoke  of  last,  led  the  Hebrew  Chris- 
tians to  dwell  upon  our  Lord's  poverty  and  humiliation,  because 
these  were  the  great  contrasts  to  the  pride  and  pomp  from  which 
they  supposed  He  came  to  purify  their  countrymen.  But  it  was 
impossible,  while  they  called  themselves  St.  James's  disciples, 
always  to  rest  in  these  thoughts.  They  knew  that  their  teacher 
had  spoken  of  Him,  not  only  as  poor,  not  only  as  entering  into 
every  human  sorrow,  but  also  as  divine.  Both  truths  had  been 
distinctly  asserted  by  him.  They  knew  that  he  did  not  feel  them 
to  be  irreconcilable.  But  how  were  they  to  be  reconciled  ?  The 
Jewish  Scriptures  spoke  of  angels.  Might  not  these  be  interme- 
diate beings,  floating  between  earth  and  heaven,  far  below  Him 
who  filled  all  in  all,  far  above  His  creatures  in  this  world  ? 
Might  they  not  be  permitted,  for  certain  great  ends  and  at  certain 
times,  to  put  on  actual  or  apparent  human  flesh,  and  to  dwell 
among  men  ?  Might  not  our  Lord  be  one  of  them  :  perhaps  the 
chief  of  them  all  ?  Speculations  of  this  kind,  closely  connecting 
themselves  with  the  idea  of  the  Messiah,  occupied  the  minds  of 
the  deeply-thinking  Alexandrian  Jews,  and  presented  themselves 
in  more  vulgar  and  practical  forms  to  the  despised  Samaritan. 
Shortly  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  they  were  found  working 
mightily  in  the  minds  of  those  who  had  believed  in  Jesus ;  and, 
blending  themselves  with  those  views,  apparently  so  simple, 
which  represented  Him  as  the  Great  Reformer,  as  the  poor 
man.*  I  have  endeavored  to  show  in  the  next  lecture  how  little 
the  Angels  actually  spoken  of  in  the  Old  Testament  belong  to 
this  region.  They  must  therefore  have  already  taken  hold  of  the 
Church  in  Judaea.     But  whither  would  they  lead  ? 

That  miidle  region  between  heaven  and  earth  is  the  home  of 
all  the  demons  of   Greek   Mythology,  yea,  of  all   the  objects  of 

*  I  have  adopted  the  meaning  of  the  word  Ebionite,  which  I  think  is  now 
generally  sanctioned.  The  nature  of  the  connection  between  the  Ebionite 
and  Gnostical  opinions  I  hope  to  examine  -more  fully  in  some  illustrations 
which  I  propose  to  append  to  these  Lectures  when  they  are  complete. 


EBIONITE    AND    GNOSTICAL    NOTIONS    MIXED.  483 

human  worship  which  in  later  or  earlier  times  have  shadowed 
forth  the  deepest  wants  of  man's  spirit,  his  sense  of  his  own  evil, 
his  sense  of  the  blessings  and  curses  of  the  outward  universe. 
The  forms  of  idolatry,  therefore,  which  the  Jewish  law  had  de- 
nounced,— which  the  Jews  had  believed  that  the  God  of  Abraham 
would  destroy,  were  likely  at  once  to  invade  the  heart  and  con- 
science which  entered  into  this  strange  circle.  And  though  these 
forms  had  at  this  time  lost  their  definiteness  and  much  of  their 
beauty,  they  had  not  lost  their  potency.  It  was  a  time  when  men 
were  beginning  to  talk  largely  about  emanations  from  the  Divin- 
ity— when  old  idolatries  were  evaporating  into  impersonations  of 
spiritual  qualities  or  natural  powers — when  shapeless  monsters 
of  Superstition  were  produced  from  a  union  of  Atheism  with  the 
terrors  of  an  evil  conscience,  fearing  where  no  fear  was.  Even 
in  Rome,  though  the  religion  had  become  a  mere  state  machinery, 
■ — though  the  wonder  which  Cicero  expressed,  that  two  augurs 
could  meet  each  other  with  grave  faces,  was  daily  becomirtg  more 
reasonable, — though  the  emperor  was  the  one  really  acknowl- 
edged god  of  the  world — dreams  and  portents,  and  Babylonian 
numbers,  never  exerted  a  greater  influence  over  the  mind  of  the 
tyrant  and  the  slave,  the  soldier  in  the  camp,  and  the  matron  in 
her  closet.  Where  then  could  a  Christian  Jew,  who  once  began 
to  look  upon  the  invisible  world  as  a  region  for  his  fancy  to  work 
in,  be  expected  to  stop  short  ?  His  Lord  would  soon  be  regard- 
ed as  one  of  a  multitude  of  godlike  personages  or  symbols,  or 
emanations  ;  his  direct  Christian  faith  would  disappear  altogether. 
But  it  would  carry  along  with  it  his  Jewish  reverence  for  the  one 
Lord,  the  Jehovah.  Nay,  the  very  Paganism  which  was  left  as  a 
deposit,  would  be  something  infinitely  less  real  than  the  Paganism 
of  former  times, — a  collection  of  shadows,  with  scarcely  the  hint 
of  a  subject, — of  images,  with  scarcely  the  dream  of  an  archetype. 
There  was  ground  enough  then  for  the  apprehension  which  at 
first  seemed  so  strange,  that  the  Christians  of  Palestine  might 
become,  in  the  strictest  and  largest  sense  of  the  word,  Apostate. 
And  yet  any  one  rudely  attacking  those  notions  and  habits  of 
mind  which  were  rapidly  leading  to  this  point,  must  have  attacked 


484  LECTURE     T. 

precious  truths, — must  have  undermined  the  reverence  which 
these  Christians  entertained  for  the  Apostles  and  Martyrs,  from 
whom  they  had  received  them.  Unless  every  one  of  these  con- 
victions could  be  shown  to  have  a  real  ground, — unless  their  be- 
lief in  the  sacredness  of  the  law  and  covenant  of  the  Father 
could  be  deepened, — unless  they  could  be  made  to  see  that  Christ 
had  indeed  come  to  fulfil,  and  had  actually  fulfilled,  this  law  and 
covenant,  and  stamped  them  with  precisely  that  kind  of  perma- 
nence which  the  Scriptures  had  said  was  belonging  to  them, — 
above  all,  unless  their  dim  notions  of  something  Divine  and 
something  Human  in  the  Person  of  their  Lord,  could  be  taken 
out  of  the  cloud-land  of  fancy,  and  be  proved  to  have  an  eternal 
basis,  adequate  to  sustain  both  the  past  and  the  future, — they 
could  not  be  prepared  for  the  calamities  which  were  threatening 
them,  or  be  saved  from  an  utter  shipwreck  of  faith.  To  these 
points,  therefore,  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  addresses"  himself  in 
the  wcfrds  I  have  taken  for  my  text,  which  are,  I  believe,  a  key  to 
the  whole  Epistle. 

"  God,^^  he  says,  "  who  i7i  sundry  times  and  divers  manners  spake 
in  times  past  unto  the  Fathers  by  the  Prophets^  hath  in  these  last 
days  spoken  unto  us  by  a  Son,  whom  He  hath  made  heir  of  all 
things,  by  whom  also  He  made  the  worlds.  Who  being  the  bright- 
ness of  His  glory,  the  express  image  of  His  perso7i,  a?id  upholdi?ig 
all  thifigs  by  the  word  of  His  power,  when  He  had  by  himself 
purged  our  sins,  sat  down  on  the  7'ight  hand  of  the  Majesty  on  high, 
being  made  so  much  better  than  the  aiigels,  as  He  hath  by  inheritance 
obtained  a  more  excellent  name  than  theyP 

The  antithetical  character  of  this  paragraph  has  been  often 
noticed,  and  is  very  obvious.  But  it  has  been  strangely  supposed 
that  this  form  was  adopted  as  a  rhetorical  artifice,  such  a  one  as 
would  be  familiar  to  a  Hellenized  Jew,  bred  in  the  schools  of 
Alexandria.  Surely  it  is  not  necessary  to  refute  such  an  hypoth- 
esis, by  proving  or  assuming  the  Divine  authority  of  the  Book. 
If  a  writer  who  believed  that  the  last  and  saddest  crisis  of  his 
country's  history  was  at  hand,  and  who  had  awful  apprehensions 
of  the  moral  state  of  the  persons  whom  he  was  addressing,  could 


PROPHECY    PARTIAL.  485 

deliberately  set  down  for  the  purpose  of  balancing  sentences,  and 
making  words  jingle, — we  must  at  once  dismiss  him,  as  destitute 
of  all  truthfulness  and  all  human  feeling,  as  incapable  of  convey- 
ing instruction  to  his  own  age  or  to  any  other.  The  rudestgutter- 
ance  which  could  convey  his  meaning  was  the  one  which  a  good 
man,  writing  at  such  a  time  and  under  such  impulses,  would  have 
chosen.  But  if  any  truth,  or  portion  of  the  truth,  he  had  to  de- 
liver, was  brought  out  with  greater  clearness  in  this  antithetical 
form,  he  was  bound  to  use  it — for  him  it  w^as  the  most  simple 
and  natural.  The  charge  of  artifice  lies  against  us  who  invent 
what  we  call  rules  of  composition,  or  canons  of  taste  ;  calling 
this  style  easy  and  genuine,  that  recondite  or  elaborate,  without 
bringing  either  to  the  only  test  by  wdiich  the  worth  of  any  style 
can  be  tried, — its  fitness  to  embody  the  thoughts  which  are  en- 
trusted to  it.  The  more  we  study  this  passage,  the  more,  I  think, 
we  shall  feel  that  if  the  writer  had  refused  to  be  antithetical,  he 
must  have  sacrificed,  not  some  accidents,  but  the  very  essence  of 
his  meaning  ;  must  have  utterly  failed  to  make  his  design  in  the 
letter  intelligible.* 

The  paragraph  opens  with  two  words,  which  our  translators 
have  rendered  "  In  sundry  times  and  divers  manners."  f  The 
last  phrase  is  open  to  no  objection.  The  first  is  generally  al- 
lowed to  be  unsatisfactory.  The  words  of  St.  Paul,  "  We  know 
in  part,  and  we  prophesy  i?i part,'' %  exactly  explain  the  original 
expression.  In  it,  no  doubt,  is  included  the  idea  of  an  adapta- 
tion in  the  teaching  of  the  prophets  to  the  times  in  which  they 
appeared.  A  plague  of  locusts  might  require  one  kind  of  reve- 
lation, an  Assyrian  invasion  another,  actually  approaching  cap- 

*  The  second  Homily  of  Ch'rysostom  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  is 
particularly  worthy  of  study,  as  illustrating  the  practical  value  of  the  balancing 
clauses  and  opposed  words  in  this  paragraph.  Each  word  in  the  clause 
'Os  Civ  anavyaaixa  had,  he  shows,  been  the  plea  for  some  heresy  ;  the  full  idea 
is  expressed  in  the  union  of  the  apparent  contradictions. 

t  TToAvjaep^s  /cal  nvKvTponug   (many  partcdly  and  many  manneredly). 

f    I  Cor.  xiii.  9-    'Ek  /mepovs  yap  yLvuxTKOfxev,  Koi  e/c  f/.epov;  wpo4>r}Tevoixev    (tor  OI  part 

we  know,  and  of  part  we  prophecy). 


486  LECTURE    I. 

tivity,  a  still  deeper  one.  But  the  leading  thought  seems  to  be, 
that  there  were  many  parts  or  divisions  in  the  prophetical  har- 
mony j  that  no  one  utterance  embraced  the  entire  mystery,  and 
that  each  portion  had  its  own  "  manner  " — that  form  of  history 
or  discourse,  of  song  or  vision,  which  was  fittest  for  setting  it 
forth. 

^  To  the  Hebrews  of  the  Christian  age  these  prophecies  pre- 
sented themselves  as  a  series  of  documents  which  could  be  read, 
translated,  commented  on.  The  power  of  contemplating  them 
as  parts  of  a  whole  was,  no  doubt,  a  valuable  one  ;  but  it  might 
easily  be  turned  into  a  curse — the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  had 
actually  made  it  one.  For  while  they  worshipped  the  letter  of 
the  prophecy,  they  forgot  that  it  had  proceeded  from  the  lips  of 
living,  suffering  men,  and  had  gone  to  the  hearts  and  consciences 
of  actual  men.  It  is  not  idly  then,  or  without  a  meaning,  that 
the  writer  reminds  his  readers  very  frequently  throughout  the 
Epistle  rhat  the  words  were  "  spoken  :  "  if  they  were  to  be  felt, 
they  must  be  felt  as  spoken  words,  not  merely  as  the  words  of  a 
book.  If  they  were  so  felt,  the  language,  "  God  spake  them," 
would  be  also  acknowledged  as  real,  and  not  mere  formal  lan- 
guage. The  people  who  heard  the  prophet,  whether  they  were 
awakened  to  repentance,  or  whether  they  turned  away  in  rage 
from  the  reprover,  confessed  his  voice  to  be  a  Divine  voice.  It 
discovered  evils  within  them  which  no  mortal  eye  could  have 
seen.  It  brought  out  that  which  was  working  confusedly  in  their 
spirits  into  awful  clearness  ;  it  brought  past  and  present  and 
future  before  them,  as  one  for  them  and  one  in  Him,  who  is,  and 
was,  and  is  to  come.  There  was  no  questioning  in  their  minds 
how  this  could  be.  If  they  believed  a  man  to  be  a  prophet  at  all, 
to  be  speaking  true  words  to  them,  they  believed  God  was  speak- 
ing in  him.  They  had  no  doubt  that  He  spoke  to  their  fathers 
out  of  the  midst  of  the  fire  ;  that  voice  had  proclaimed  the  law 
which  was  laid  up  in  the  ark  of  the  tabernacle.  It  could  not  be 
a  different  voice  which  was  carrying  home  this  law  to  their  inner 
man  ;  which  was  making  them  sure  that  it  was  as  true  for  them 
as  for  their  fathers  ;  that  they  had  broken  it  as  their  fathers  had ; 


PROPHECY    DIVINE.  48/ 

that  they  were  within  the  scope  of  all  its  blessings  ;  that  its 
curses  were  about  to  be  fulfilled  in  them.  Nay,  did  not  the  voice 
of  this  human  speaker  seem,  in  one  sense,  to  be  even  more  divine 
than  that  which  came  forth  amidst  the  thunders?  It  was  less 
terrible  to  the  outward  ear ;  it  seemed  to  conv^ey  more  the  assur- 
ance of  a  personal  presence  to  the  Heart.  The  whole  education  of 
the  Jew  was  designed  to  withdraw  him  from  outward  and  visible 
things.  The  material  terrors  which  the  people  saw  in  the  plagues 
and  wilderness  had  passed  away — if  they  were  renewed,  it  was  in 
pestilences  and  earthquakes,  or  in  the  hosts  of  Sennacherib.  In 
these  the  voice  of  God  might  be  heard,  but  the  words  of  him  who 
made  that  voice  intelligible,  who  declared  why  it  was  uttered, 
what  internal  corruptions  had  provoked  it,  must  seem  to  come 
from  even  a  more  secret  and  holy  place. 

But  though  their  fathers,  at  each  actual  crisis  of  their  history, 
might  have  confessed  that  God  was  speaking  in  the  prophets,  it 
must  often  have  been  a  sore  difficulty  to  them  to  reconcile  this 
conviction  with  what  they  had  been  told — with  what  these 
prophets  told  them — of  the  Unseen  and  Eternal  Jehovah.  Why 
did  holy  men  arise  except  to  testify  that  no  creature  might 
measure  itself  with  the  Creator  ;  how  was  it  then  that  these 
creatures,  these  men  of  like  passions  with  themselves,  whom 
they  saw  going  in  and  out  among  them,  could  dare  to  say  that 
the  word  of  God  was  in  them  ?  It  was  a  mighty  perplexity,  the 
perplexity  of  the  Jew's  life :  mingling  itself  with  every  thought  of 
his  nation,  of  himself,  of  the  Divine  Lord.  His  race  was  taught 
to  consider  itself  elect  and  holy.  Yet  they  were  a  stiff-necked 
people,  a  people  of  unclean  lips,  guilty  of  rebellions  which  no 
heathen  could  be  charged  with.  Being  in  the  covenant,  he  must 
look  upon  himself  as  righteous,  and  whenever  he  drew  nigh  to 
God,  he  knew  that  the  belief  was  no  delusion  :  yet  he  was  con- 
scious of  infinite  evil.  He  dared  not  think  of  God,  except  as  the 
High  and  Holy  One  who  inhabited  eternity;  he  dared  not  doubt 
that  men,  nay,  that  he  himself  was  intended  to  bear  the  image  of 
this  High  and  Holy  One. 

Strange  contradictions  these,  which,  if  they  had  rushed  at  once 


488  LECTURE    I. 

upon  the  mind  of  any  man,  must  have  crushed  it.  But  they 
came,  like  the  revelation  of  the  prophet,  in  sundry  portions  and 
divers  manners  ;  and  as  each  new  difficulty  arose,  there  came 
with  it  the  sense  of  a  solution,  of  one  upon  which  it  was  possible 
to  act  even  then,  and  which  would  be  complete,  all  sufficient,  one 
day. 

That  day,  says  the  writer  of  the  Epistle,  has  come  ;  we  are 
"  at  the  end  of  those  days  "  to  which  the  prophets  belonged. 
And  now  God  hath  spoken  to  us  by  a  So7i.  If  a  proof  were 
wanting  how  little  the  antitheses  of  this  passage  had  been  intro- 
duced for  the  purpose  of  oratorical  effect,  what  essential  and 
pregnant  parts  they  are  of  the  meaning,  we  should  find  it  in  an 
oversight  of  our  translators  respecting  this  clause :  an  oversight 
so  slight  and  natural,  that  one  could  hardly  have  attributed  any 
mischief  to  it,  and  yet  which  has,  I  believe,  darkened  the  sense, 
not  of  a  single  sentence,  but  of  the  whole  Epistle.  By  substitu- 
ting the  possessive  pronoun  for  the  indefinite  article — His  Son, 
for  A  Son — they  have  removed  the  emphasis  from  the  right 
word  ;  they  have  led  readers  to  take  the  word  "  Son  "  as  a 
chance  synonyme  of  Christ  or  the  Messiah.  Were  it  only  this, 
there  would  be  no  connection  between  the  rest  of  the  chapter 
and  this  introduction,  nor  would  either  have  any  direct  applica- 
tion to  the  circumstances  of  the  Hebrew  Christians.  The  pas- 
sages which  the  writer  quotes  from  the  Old  Testament  are  not 
meant  to  prove  that  a  Messiah  was  expected  by  the  holy  Israel- 
ites. Every  Pharisee  would  have  admitted  that  assertion.  The 
Christians  of  Palestine  did  not  require  to  be  told  that  Jesus  was 
the  Messiah  of  whom  the  prophets  spoke ;  every  act  of  their 
lives  involved  that  profession.  The  real  question  to  debate  with 
the  first  was,  What  kind  of  Messiah  did  your  fathers  look  for  ? 
with  the  second.  What  manner  of  person  is  he  whom  you  recog- 
nize under  that  name  }  The  writer  of  the  Epistle  says  :  Only  to 
a  Son  of  God  belong  those  words  of  the  Old  Testament,  which 
denote,  as  you  Pharisees  believe,  a  Messiah  ;  only  to  a  Son  of 
God  belong  those  acts  which  you  Christian  Jews  attribute  to  Jesus 
of  Nazareth. 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  REVELATION.  489 

The  illustration  of  these  two  assertions,  and  ©f  the  method  by 
which  he  establishes  and  connects  them,  I  reserve  for  another 
Lecture.  But  for  our  present  purpose  it  is  very  needful  to  ob- 
serve how  he  describes  that  Son  in  whom  God  was  speaking  ; 
"  Who7n  he  hath  constituted  heir  of  all  things,  by  whom  also  he 
made  the  worlds y  We  often  say  that  Revelation  is  progressive, 
and  the  writer  of  this  Epistle  abundantly  justifies  the  language. 
But  hy  progress,  some  seem  to  understand  a  continual  journeying 
away  from  the  inmost  centre  ;  a  movement  towards  the  circum- 
ference. Here  we  seem  to  be  taught  that  each  step  of  it  is 
bringing  us  nearer  to  the  ground  of  things — nearer  to  the  throne 
of  God.  The  revelation  of  God  in  this  sense  is  truly  the  unveil- 
ing of  himself.  First,  He  speaks  in  that  which  is  most  distant 
from  Him,  the  mere  things  which  He  has  formed  ;  then  in  men 
whom  He  created  to  rule  over  these  things  ;  lastly,  in  Him  who 
by  the  eternal  law  is  the  inheritor  of  all  things,  in  whom  and  for 
whom  they  were  created.  The  order  of  the  world,  the  succession 
of  ages,  spoke  of  the  permanence  of  God.  Here  He  speaks  in 
Him  by  whom  He  framed  the  order  of  the  world,  the  succession 
of  times.  At  each  step  we  are  led  into  a  higher,  more  awful 
region  ;  yet  not  into  a  region  more  remote  from  humanity  and 
human  sympathies  :  rather,  into  one  where  humanity  has  reached 
its  highest  point ;  where  every  faculty  and  affection  and  energy 
has  its  full  expansion  and  fruition.  Things,  in  themselves  cold 
and  inanimate,  are  found  to  have  a  personal  centre ;  the  course 
of  time,  in  itself  dead  and  abstract,  to  have  a  living  Mover.  It 
is  the  Son  of  God,  "  the  brightness  of  his  Father's  glory,  the  express 
image  of  his  substa7ice.'"  Glimpses  of  his  glory  we  have  seen  in 
his  creation,  brighter  glimpses  in  the  love  and  tenderness  of 
human  creatures.  Here  is  He  from  whom  they  have  both  pro- 
ceeded ;  here  is  the  mystery  which  the  prophets  perceived  in  dif- 
ferent portions,  and  expressed  in  divers  manners  ;  here  is  the 
whole  Word,  of  which  they  uttered  different  syllables.  Men  are 
told  that  they  are  made  in  the  image  of  God  :  how  it  could  be 
they  knew  not.  Here  is  his  express  image,  not  shown  in  the 
heaven  above,  nor  in  the  earth  beneath,  but  in  a  man.    In   Him 


490  LECTURE    I. 

creation  has  subsiste;',  in  spite  of  all  the  elements  of  confusion 
and  discord  within  it.  "  He  has  iipholden  it  by  the  word  of  his 
powerr  In  Him  we  find  how  humanity  has  been  a  holy  thing, 
though  each  man  felt  himself  to  be  unholy.  For  the  moment  He 
clothes  himself  with  all  its  vilest  accidents  it  becomes  actually 
holy  ;  the  sinfulness  which  belongs  to  each  man's  separate  na- 
ture \s  purged  out  of  human  nature  when  He  inhabits  it,  and 
takes  it  unto  Himself.  In  Him  it  is  proved  that  man  is  meant 
to  have  his  dwelling  with  God ;  for  He  having  purified  the  soul 
and  body  which  he  had  taken,  "  sat  dow?i  o?i  the  right  hand  of  the 
Majesty  on  high,''^  claiming  for  all  men  the  privileges  of  spiritual 
beings,  the  power  of  rising  above  the  limitations  of  space  and 
time — of  entering  into  fellowship  wdth  Him  who  filleth  alHn  all. 
And  since  He,  in  His  human  nature,  "  has  been  made  so  much 
higher  than  the  angels^  having^  by  inheritance^  obtained  a  more  ex- 
cellent name  than  they ;  "  man  must  not  look  upon  himself  as  sub- 
ject to  angels  ;  must  not  think  of  them  as  occupying  any  inter- 
mediate space  between  himself  and  the  Lord  of  all.  He  must 
confess  that  He  is  a  spirit,  even  as  they  are  ;  that  he  is  brought 
into  a  direct  relationship  with  Him  before  whom  they  veil  their 
faces. 

Such  a  doctrine  was  surely  a  very  awful  one.  The  Hebrew 
Christians  must  have  felt  it  to  be  so.  Their  teacher  desired 
nothing  so  much  as  that  they  should  feel  it.  A  feeble  frivolous 
tone  of  mind,  which  was  glad  to  lose  itself  among  shadows, 
which  would  not  confront  realities,  had  grown  up  among  them  ; 
they  would  have  hid  themselves  among  the  forms  and  images  of 
their  ritual,  as  Adam  hid  himself  among  the  trees  of  the  garden. 
Under  pretence  of  exalting  their  privileges  as  Jews,  they  were 
shrinking  from  the  great  privilege  of  all,  that  of  knowing  Him 
who  had  called  them  to  be  His  people.  The  writer  of  the  Epis- 
tle wishes  to  convince  them  that  it  was  no  longer  possible  thus 
to  deny  their  spiritual  rights.  They  must  either  acknowledge 
them  and  walk  in  them,  or  sink  into  a  much  thicker  darkness,  a 
deeper  atheism  than  any  which  their  fathers  had  ever  known. 
Hence  vehement  objurgations  and  awful  warnings  mix  so  strange- 


THE    APPROACHING    CRISIS.  49I 

ly  with  language  of  transcendant  encouragement  and  hope.  The 
two  were  never  separated  in  the  writer's  mind.  A  spiritual  crea- 
ture must  have  capacities  of  highest  vision,  of  infinite  love.  He 
must  be  capable  again  of  utter  self-concentration  and  despair. 
A  crisis  was  at  hand  which  would  bring  all  to  the  test.  Not 
earth  only,  but  also  heaven  would  be  shaken  ;  not  an  ordinary 
civil  polity,  but  the  Divine  polity,  would  seem  to  be  subverted. 
If,  in  the  outward  forms  of  that  polity,  lay  the  only  proof  to  them 
of  a  relationship  between  God  and  his  creatures,  their  belief 
would  vanish  altogether.  If,  through  the  forms  of  that  polity 
they -had  risen  to  the  apprehension  of  a  relationship  with  God, 
of  which  all  human  relations  were  lower  forms,  a  relationship 
grounded  upon  the  Divine  nature  itself ;  upon  the  union  of  a 
Son  with  a  Father  in  one  Eternal  Spirit ;  they  would  know  that 
there  was  something  which  could  not  be  shaken,  but  must  re- 
main, and  that  something  a  resting-place  for  the  hopes  of  their 
race  and  of  the  whole  creation. 


LECTURE    II. 

THE  DIVINE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  JEWS. 


HEBREWS  II.  6—8. 

But  one  in  a  certain  place  testified,  saying,  What  is  Man,  that  thou 
art  mindful  of  him  1  or  the  Son  of  Ma?t,  that  thou  visitest 
him  ?  Thou  inadest  him  a  little  lower  than  the  angels  ;  thou 
crownedst  him  with  glory  and  honor,  and  didst  set  him  over  the 
works  of  thy  hands  :  Thou  hast  put  all  thi?igs  in  subjection 
imder  his  feet. 

The  first  words  of  this  Epistle  contain,  as  I  have  said  already, 
the  key  to  the  whole  of  it.  "  God  spake  to  our  fathers  ;  "  this  is 
the  announcement  of  the  principle  upon  which  the  history  and 
life  of  the  Jew  rested.  All  that  was  earnest  or  brave  in  his  acts 
or  words  came  from  the  conviction :  "  We  are  the  Lord's  ser- 
vants ;  He  has  actually  made  himself  known  to  us  ;  He  has  act- 
ually chosen  us  to  be  his  people.  He  is  actually  reigning  over  us." 
Every  thing  that  was  cowardly,  sensual,  idolatrous,  in  him  arose 
from  a  want — secret  or  acknowledged — of  this  conviction ;  from 
forgetfulness  of  the  Covenant ;  from  the  feeling,  "  After  all,  the 
law  did  not  come  forth  from  any  unseen  Being  ;  the  human  pro- 
phet did  not  utter  the  Word  of  the  Lord."  Resort  to  what  ex- 
planation of  the  Old  Testament  scriptures  we  will  ;  imagine 
as  many  interpolations  in  them  as  we  please,  we  cannot  construct 
them  upon  any  basis  but  this.  The  moment  we  attempt  it,  the 
records  become  a  collection  of  incoherent  fragments.  It  does 
not  require  learning   and  ingenuity  to   prove  that   they  do   not 


WHAT    MAKES    SCRIPTURE    COHERENT.  493 

form  a  whole  ;  they  cannot  form  one ;  that  which  gave  them  their 
unity  and  their  relation  to  each  other,  is  gone.  The  Jews  were 
not  a  nation  unless  the  Divine  Covenant  was  a  reality,  and  not  a 
fiction  ;  they  have  no  history  if  the  books  which  pretend  to  con- 
tain it  are  a  record  of  certain  limited  speculations  about  God, 
not  of  that  which  He  spoke  to  man. 

God  hath  spoken  to  us  by  a  Son.  This  is  the  announcement  of 
the  fact  which  the  New  Testament  unfolds.  Put  any  other  fact 
in  the  place  of  this  :  say  that  the  books  of  the  New  Testament 
are  setting  forth  an  idea,  and  not  a  fact  ;  say  that  they  are  occu- 
pied about  a  great  many  subjects,  and  not  with  this  one, — with 
others  only  as  they  bear  upon  this  one — and  it  requires  no  great 
learning  and  argument  to  prove  them  a  collection  of  incoherent 
fragments ;  they  can  be  nothing  else  :  you  have  taken  away  the 
bond  which  holds  them  together  ;  of  necessity  they  fall  to  pieces. 
.Try  to  re-construct  them  upon  some  other  ground,  and  you  will 
soon  discover  what  a  hopeless,  unintelligible  mass  of  materials 
you  have  to  deal  with — materials  which,  by  no  possible  processes 
of  elimination  or  re-formation,  you  can  bring  into  any  reasonable 
order. 

But  the  object  of  the  writer  of  this  Epistle  is  not  only  to  set 
forth  that  which  is  assumed  in  the  idea  of  a  revelation,  and  that 
which  was  characteristic  of  the  later  revelation ;  he  wishes  to 
show  that  the  later  was  implied  in  the  earlier  ;  that  the  prophet- 
ical speech  was  a  riddle  until  it  was  explamed  by  the  speech  in 
a  Son  ;  that  only  those  who  acknowledged  such  a  speech  as  the 
one  adequate  Divine  utterance,  could  understand  their  own  ora- 
cles. That  he  may  establish  this  point,  he  refers  to  a  Variety  of 
passages  from  the  Old  Testament.  To  understand  the  use  he 
makes  of  these  passages  is  the  only  real  difficulty  in  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  Epistle  :  he  who  evades  it  must  cast  the  whole 
aside  as  unintelligible ;  he  who  overcomes  it  will  find,  I  think, 
clearness  and  brightness  where  he  had  found  most  obscurity. 

There  are  some  quotations  in  the  first  chapter  of  the  Epistle 
— very  important  for  the  elucidation  of  the  subject,  and  for  the 
removal  of  a  practical  error — about  which  there  is  no  perplexity. 


494  LECTURE    II. 

They  refer  to  angels.  These,  the  writer  says,  are  always  spoken 
of  in  the  Jewish  scriptures  as  mere  servants,  ministering  spirits. 
No  divinity  is  assigned  to  them;  they  are  sent  forth  upon  er- 
rands of  mercy  ;  they  are  represented  as  doing  works  for  man, 
not  as  claiming  to  be  his  masters  or  to  mediate  between  him 
and  his  Creator.  That  idea  of  mediation  may  indeed  be  traced 
through  the  Old  Testament :  not,  however,  in  its  allusions  to 
angels,  but  in  its  language  respecting  one  of  whom  it  is  written : 
"  Thou  art  my  Son,  this  day  have  I  begotten  thee." 

Here  the  difficulty,  of  which  I  spoke,  begins  ;  one  which  has 
greatly  exercised  simple  readers  of  the  book,  and  theological 
students  still  more.  The  passages  which  follow  seem  to  be  con- 
nected with  certain  events  which  were  occurring  at  the  times  in 
which  they  were  written,  events  in  which  the  individual  speaker, 
or  the  nation  generally,  was  deeply  interested.  Are  we  to  sup- 
pose they  did  not  refer  to  those  events  ?  Or  had  they  a  double 
sense,  like  a  heathen  oracle  ?  Or  was  a  later  writer  permitted 
to  put  such  a  sense  upon  them,  it  not  being  originally  in  them  ? 
Every  commentator  has  felt  that  he  must  meet  these  questions. 
The  actual  answers  have  been  chiefly  three. 

Some  assume  that  a  New  Testament  writer  could  in  virtue  of 
his  commission  and  inspiration,  pronounce  such  and  such  a 
meaning  to  be  the  true  one  ;  we  are  bound  to  receive  his  inter- 
pretation, however  much  it  may  differ  from  the  one  we  should 
naturally  have  given. 

Another  class  of  interpreters  say  :  No  doubt  we  ought  to  ac- 
cept the  dictum  of  an  inspired  writer.  But  ought  we  from  one 
so  gifted,*  merely  to  expect  a  certain  exposition  of  a  few  specific 
passages  ;  should  not  we  rather  receive  him  as  a  guide  to  the 
right  principles  of  interpretation.  May  we  not  suppose  that  the 
writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  is  putting  his  sanction  upon 
the  use  of  allegory  ;  is  stamping  it  as  the  true  divine  method  of 
construing  the  Old  Scriptures,  and  so  is  tacitly,  and  by  anticipa- 
tion, confirming  the  application  of  it  by  later  doctors  ? 

"  Would  it  not  be  more  correct  to  say,  cry  the  teachers  of  an 
opposite  and  bolder  school,  that   the  writer  of  the   Epistle  had 


LETTER    AND    ALLEGORY.  495 

learned  the  allegorical  system  of  the  Alexandrian  Jews  ;  that 
partly  because  it  accorded  with  his  own  feeling,  partj^'  as  an  ar- 
gumenium  ad  hominem  for  those  whom  he  was  addressing,  he 
adopted  it  readily ;  that  by  doing  so  he  promoted  the  formation 
of  a  very  perverse  and  perplexing  system  in  the  Church  ;  that  in 
spite  of  his  authority,  we  must  return  to  a  fair  and  legitimate 
consideration  of  the  original  text — from  which  his  translations 
sometimes  depart  widely  —  and  must  give  it  the  most  literal 
meaning  we  can." 

Perfectly  agreeing  with  the  first  school,  that  the  interpretations 
in  this  Epistle  are  those  which  we  may  adopt  most  safely  in  read- 
ing the  Old  Testament,  I  am  equally  disposed  to  think  with  the 
second,  that  it  is  not  like  a  Divine  instructor,  not  even  like  a 
great  human  instructor,  merely  to  give  us  specimens  of  a  method 
of  unravelling  that  which  is  important  and  sacred,  without  ini- 
tiating us,  in  some  degree,  into  the  method  itself;  and  I  am 
thoroughly  at  one  with  the  last,  in  the  conviction  that  reverence 
for  Scripture  should  bind  us  to  seek  for  an  exact  meaning  of  the 
passages  quoted  ;  which  meaning  can  only  be  ascertained  by 
considering  the  occasions  which  called  them  forth,  and  their  his- 
torical contexts.  But  as  I  am  at  issue  with  the  first  in  their 
opinion,  that  it  is  safe  at  any  time  to  contemplate  Scripture 
merely  as  a  set  of  words ;  so  am  I  with  the  other  two  in  the  be- 
lief which  is  common  to  them,  that  the  writer  of  this  Epistle  has 
ever  resorted  to  allegories,  or  has,  in  a  single  instance,  overlooked 
the  circumstances  under  which  the  words  which  he  adopts  were 
uttered,  and  the  meaning  they  must  have  suggested  to  him  who 
first  heard  or  spoke  them. 

There  is  a  certain  ambiguity  in  our  use  of  the  adjective  "  lit- 
eral." We  sometimes  take  it  as  a  synonyme  for  "exact;" 
sometimes  as  the  opposite  of  "spiritual  "  or  "  internal."  In  the 
latter  sense  we  describe  by  it  that  kind  of  result  which  is  ob- 
tained by  merely  looking  at  words  and  syllables — a  result  of  which 
we  may  pronounce  at  once  that  it  is  almost  worthless  ;  for  no 
man  who  merely  spells  out  a  sentence,  without  considering  who 
spoke  it,  to  whom  it  was  spoken,  when  and  where  it  was  spoken, 


49^  LECTURE     II. 

will  find  what  it  means,  scarcely  that  it  means  any  thing.  The 
most  exact^interpreter  is  one  who  takes  most  heed  of  every  thing 
which  illustrates  the  book  or  sentence  he  is  considering  ;  which 
raises  it  from  a  dead  utterance  to  a  living  one.  Exactness  of 
this  kind  I  hope  to  show  presently  may  be  predicated  of  all  the 
references  in  this  Epistle  ;  the  absence  of  every  thing  allegorical 
in  it  must  be  ascertained  by  another  test.  Let  the  reader  calmly 
compare  it  with  any  of  the  books,  Jewish  or, Christian,  which  are 
confessedly  allegorical,  and  I  shall  be  very  much  surprised  if  he 
is  not  struck  with  something  more  than  a  difference — with  a  di- 
rect opposition  between  them.  I  will  give  two  instances,  merely 
as  hints  ;  they  might  be  multiplied  indefinitely.  The  writer  of 
the  Epistle,  in  alluding  to  the  Temple-worship,  mentions  the 
cherubim  and  the  mercy-seat.  Of  these,  he  says,  we  cannot  now 
speak  particularly.  Could  any  allegorist  have  resisted  the  temp- 
tation to  speak  most  particularly  on  these  subjects  ?  Would  not 
every  circumstance  of  their  form  and  position  have  furnished  the 
text  for  endless  analogies  and  spiritual  applications  ?  The 
writer  of  the  Epistle  spends  a  whole  chapter  upon  the  faith  of 
the  elders  of  the  Jewish  nation.  That  faith  is  illustrated  by 
their  common  acts,  their  ordinary  daily  history.  Abraham  lives 
in  tents,  and  waits  for  a  son  ;  is  ready  to  offer  him  up.  Moses  is 
hid  three  months  by  his  parents  ;  refuses  to  be  called  the  son  of 
Pharaoh's  daughter.  Could  an  allegorist  have  endured  such 
vulgar  events  as  these  ;  would  he  not  have  dwelt  on  the  signif- 
icance of  the  names  of  the  patriarchs  ;  would  not  each  act  of  their 
lives  have  been  treated  as  remarkable  because  it  was  the  type  of 
something  Divine  or  something  future.?  And  generally  it  may 
be  affirmed  that  this  writer,  instead  of  seeking  for  shadows,  is 
impatient  of  them — he  is  always  desirous  to  translate  them  into 
something  practical  and  substantial.  While  the  allegorist  avoids 
nothing  so  much  as  history,  treats  institutions  as  earthly  secular 
things,  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  shows,  as  it  seems  to  me,  that 
the  history  and  institutions  of  the  land  were  the  very  instru- 
ments through  which  the  Divine  revelation  was  made  to  his 
countrymen,  and  by  which  their  minds  were  awakened  to  receive 


METHOD    OF    THE    EPISTLE.  497 

it.  The  passages  which  he  quotes  were  all  connected  with  dif- 
ferent portions  of  the  Jewish  constitution,  all  familiar  to  the  Pal- 
estine Jews  in  that  connection.  So  far  from  suppressing  this 
fact,  it  is  his  great  desire  that  they  should  take  notice  of  it.  His 
whole  art,  if  art  it  may  be  called^  seems  devised  for  the  purpose 
of  impressing  this  conviction  more  deeply  upon  them.  Some- 
times he  dwells  on  a  significant  word,  sometimes  he  neglects 
words — not  quoting  or  translating  with  strict  accuracy — if,  by  a 
deviation  from  the  letter  which  would  be  instantly  recognized,  he 
could  bring  the  subject  of  it  more  vividly  before  them,  and  show 
them  that  not  in  the  words  themselves,  so  much  as  in  the  fact  or 
institution  of  which  they  spoke,  lay  the  principle  which  he  is 
setting  forth.  By  such  means,  1  conceive,  he  most  effectually 
counteracted  what  was  mischievous  in  his  countrymen's  reverence 
for  institutions,  while  he  justified  it  and  placed  it  upon  its  right 
ground.  For  he  showed  how  that  which  they  were  disposed  to 
worship  for  its  own  sake  had  been  a  method  of  Divine  education 
to  bring  out  the  great  idea  of  a  Son  ;  the  idea  which  was  realized 
and  fulfilled  in  Jesus  Christ.  The  steps  of  this  Divine  education 
mark,  it  seems  to  me,  the  pauses  and  stages  in  the  Epistle  ;  if  we 
trace  them  through  it,  we  shall  appreciate  more  fully  its  worth 
as  an  exposition  of  Scripture  and  of  history. 

I.  I  think  it  is  evident  that  the  passages  quoted  in  the  first 
chapter  refer  to  the  office  of  the  Jewish  King.  With  one  excep- 
tion, they  are  all  taken  from  the  Book  of  Psalms.  But  that  ex- 
ception is  a  very  significant  one.  It  is  :  "I  will  be  to  Him  a 
Father,  and. he  shall  be  to  me  a  Son."  These  words  occur  in 
the  7th  chapter  of  the  Second  Book  of  Samuel.  We  are  told 
there  that  David,  after  he  had  overcome  his  different  enemies, 
designed  to  build  a  '1  emple  to  God.  A  prophet  informs  him 
that  his  purpose  is  approved,  but  that  it  shall  not  be  accom- 
plished in  his  reign  :  "  When  thy  days  be  fulfilled,  and  thou  shalt 
sleep  with  thy  fathers,  I  will  set  up  thy  seed  after  thee,  which 
shall  proceed  out  of  thy  bowels.  He  shall  build  an  house  for 
my  name,  and  I  will  stablish  the  throne  of  his  kingdom  for  ever. 
I  will  be  his  Father,  and  he  shall  be  my  son."  Every  Hebrew 
.       32 


498  LECTURE    II. 

would  at  once  turn  to  this  passage  as  to  the  title-deed  of  the 
Jewish  kingdom,  the  formal  enunciation  of  the  principle  upon 
which  it  stood.  The  words  affirmed  directly  that  God  had  set  it 
up  ;  that  the  visible  king  held  of  the  Invisible, — was  a  witness  of 
His  power  and  presence.  They  declared  that  the  house  of 
David,  the  family  reigning  from  generation  to  generation,  de" 
noted  the  permanence  of  the  Divine  rule,  and  the  permanence  of 
the  nation  in  Him.  So  much  all  would  have  confessed.  The 
object  of  the  writer  is  to  show  that  more  was  contained  in  this 
document  than  the  mere  establishment  of  a  human  kingdom  by 
an  act  of  Divine  will.  When  He  who  established  it  said,  "  I 
will  be  to  him  a  Father,"  he  signified  that  there  was  an  actual 
relation  between  Himself  and  the  human  monarch,  yea  between 
Himself  and  the  nation  and  all  its  members.  This  was  the  mys- 
tery which  had  been  felt  by  every  true  Jewish  king  to  be  the 
basis  of  his  power  ;  to  be  that  which  made  it  real  power  ;  to  be 
that  which  separated  it  from  arbitrary  power  :  losing  this  faith, 
he  became  a  self-willed  tyrant.  Yet  it  was  a  mystery,  and  one 
which  it  might  require  ages  to  unfold. 

That  a  Greek  should  look  up  to  one  who  as  he  believed  dwelt 
on  a  high  Thessnlian  hill,  in  the  midst  of  a  council  of  warriors, 
like  his  own  chiefs,  and  should  say,  "  Father  of  gods  and  men," 
was  nothing  strange.  That  a  Hebrew  king  should  dare  for  a 
moment  to  use  such  language,  to  indulge  such  a  thought,  respect- 
ing the  I  Am  :  Him  whom  no  man  had  seen  or  could  see,  Who 
dwelt  in  thick  darkness,  from  Whom  the  Law  had  come  forth 
amidst  lightnings  and  thunderings,  this  was  wonderful.  Was  it 
that  the  awe  of  Jehovah  had  grown  less  since  the  days  of  Moses  ? 
No  ;  surely  we  can  find  no  deeper  expression  of  it  than  in  the 
songs  of  the  shepherd-king,  in  Solomon's  consecration  prayer. 
As  the  sense  of  nearness  to  the  Divine  Majesty  became  more  re- 
alized, it  seemed  that  its  awfulness  was  more  realized  also.  How 
this  could  be,  must  be  learnt  from  the  experience  of  those  who 
lived  under  this  kingdom  ;  and  to  them  the  Epistle  next  refers. 
The  quotations  from  the  Psalms  seem  purposely  taken  from  dif- 
ferent parts   of  the   history,  that  we   may  see  in  what   opposite 


CAP.    I.    &    II.      THE    PSALMS.  499 

circumstances,  through  what  conflicts  with  foes,  individual  and 
national,  the  idea  was  developed  in  the  minds  of  holy  Israelites, 
of  One  to  whom  the  words,  "  I  will  be  his  Father,  and  he  shall 
be  my  Son,"  might  be  strictly  spoken,  and  in  whom  they  must  be 
spoken  to  the  visible  King. 

The  second  Psalm  speaks  of  a  time  when  Jewish  and  Heathen 
foes  were  both  rebelling  against  the  anointed  king.  The  holy 
man,  whether  he  were  the  king  himself  or  some  other,  is  sure 
they  will  be  confounded  because  there  is  a  king  seated  not  in 
the  royal  palace,  but  on  the  hill  of  Zion,  where  the  Invisible 
Presence  dwelt,  to  whom  the  Lord  is  saying,  "  Thou  art  my  Son." 
The  writer  of  the  97th  was  probably  surrounded,  in  Samaria,  or 
in  Phoenicia,  by  worshippers  of  heroes  and  demigods,  who 
taunted  him  with  atheism,  and  it  may  be  awakened  doubts  in 
his  own  mind  whether  homage  to  an  unseen  being  could  be 
real.  The  thought,  "  The  Lord  reigneth," — He  is  the  true  King, 
— comes  to  his  relief ;  but  it  expands  into  another,  without  which 
it  would  be  insufficient — the  assurance  that  the  King  would  raise 
up  a  true  image  of  himself  to  put  down  all  false  images  ;  that 
there  was  One  to  whom  he  wa's  even  then  saying,  "  Worship  him, 
all  ye  angels,''  heroes,  gods,  whatever  ye  be.  The  singer  of  the 
45th  Psalm,  living  in  some  time  of  festivity,  celebrating  a  royal 
bridal,  has  the  vision  of  a  higher  king,  one  perfectly  loving  right- 
eousness and  hating  iniquity,  the  true  bridegroom  of  the  nation 
and  of  humanity.  The  writer  of  the  io2d,  "  sitting  like  a  pelican 
in  the  wilderness,  like  an  owl  in  the  desert,"  "  reviled  by  his  en- 
emies all  the  day,"  is  sustained  by  the  belief  of  a  king  who  would 
reign  over  his  own  people  and  over  the  heathen,  because  "  the 
earth  was  His  ;  He  had  of  old  laid  the  foundation  of  it,  and  the 
heavens  were  the  work  of  His  hand ;  they  might  perish,  but  He 
would  endure."  Finally,  the  writer  of  the  iioth  Psalm  who 
probably  saw  no  external  signs  of  royalty,  but  who  lived  when  a 
priest  was  fulfilling  the  office  of  the  civil  ruler,  perceives  that  the 
perfect  King  must  unite  the  priestly  and  kingly  functions,  and 
that  to  such  a  one  the  Lord  is  saying,  "  Sit  thou  upon  my  right 
hand  till  I  make  thy  foes  thy  footstool." 


500  LECTURE    II, 

These  were,  of  course,  passages  upon  which  a  Hebrew  would 
delight  to  dwell,  as  indicating  the  glory  of  his  nation,  the  special 
privileges  which  belonged  to  it  and  were  in  reserve  for  it.  But 
was  this  all  that  they  actually — all  that  the  holy  men  of.  past 
times  felt  that  they  denoted  ?  Surely  not.  David  had  asked, 
in  those  words  which  I  have  taken  for  my  text,  and  which  throw 
the  clearest  light  upon  all  around  them,  "What  is  MaJi^  that  thou 
art  mindful  of  him  t  or  the  son  of  man,  that  thou  visitest  him  .'* 
Thou  madest  him  a  little  lower  than  the  angels  ;  thou  crownedst 
him  with  glory  and  honor,  and  didst  set  him  over  the  works  of 
thy  hands  :  Thou  hast  put  all  things  in  subjection  under  his 
feet."  He  was  led  to  feel  not  only  the  greatness  of  himself,  or 
an  Israelite,  but  the  greatness  of  man  through  this  revelation  of 
a  Divine  King. 

The  elevation  of  the  Jew  could  not  be  meant  to  degrade  the 
human  race  to  which  he  belonged  ;  must  be  meant  to  raise  it,  to 
bear  witness  of  the  state  for  which  God  had  created  it.  The  first 
records  of  Jewish  history  had  declared  that  all  creatures  were 
put  under  man,  that  he  was  made  the  king  of  the  world,  and  in 
the  image  of  God.  As  yet  the  words  seemed  to  be  but  poorly 
realized  :  the  ruler  seemed  to  be  the  slave  of  the  servant  ;  the 
homage  of  the  creatures  to  man  was  often  exchano:ed  for  his  hom- 
age to  them  ;  one  death  claimed  dominion  over  them  both.  Still 
the  feeling  lay  deep  in  all  human  hearts,  that  dominion  over  the 
earth,  intercourse  with  heaven  were  intended  for  them  ;  still  they 
had  wrestled  with  Death  as  if  it  were  a  strange  intruder,  an  un- 
lawful usurper.  The  vision  then  of  one  in  whom  not  the  Jewish 
nation  only,  but  humanity,  had  its  true  head  and  representative, 
must  be  realized.  And  did  not  the  Hebrew  Christians  believe 
there  was  one  who  had  exercised  kingship  here  on  earth  over  all 
material  things,  had  proved  the  great  tyrant  to  be  an  intruder  and 
had  overcome  him  ?  Though  they  saw  not  yet  all  things  put  under 
man,  did  they  not  see  Jesus,  who  for  the  suffering  of  death  was  made 
a  little  lower  than  the  angels,  crowned  with  glory  and  honor  "i 

II.  The  Jewish  king  especially  embodied  the  idea  of  dignity, 
glory  and  superiority.     These  qualities  were,  no  doubt,  often  ex- 


CAP.    II.    VV.     10-17.       THE    PROPHET.  5OI 

hibited  in  deepest  weakness ;  they  involved  condescension  to 
the  meanest  ;  the  history  of  David  showed  that  the  anointed 
ruler  might  be  the  fugitive  and  outlaw.  Still  these  were  not  the 
first  recollections  which  would  present  themselves  to  any  one  con- 
sidering the  office,  nor  did  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  desire  they' 
should.  The  tendency  of  those  whom  he  addressed  was  to  lower 
the  dignity  of  man  :  to  make  him  the  servant  of  angels.  This 
tendency  they  exhibited  even  when  they  spoke  truly  and  nobly 
of  Christ  as  the  poor  man  ;  for  they  meant  by  those  words  that 
He  was  nothing  else,  that  He  had  no  royalty. 

But  there  was  an  order  of  men  who  brought  this  character  di- 
rectly before  the  mind  of  the  Jews.  The  prophet  or  holy  man 
was  indeed  the  reprover  of  kings  ;  he  interpreted  the  nature  of 
the  office  ;  he  showed  how  it  must  be  fulfilled  ;  but  he  was  him- 
self the  suffering  Israelite.  To  this  part  of  the  economy  the  next 
quotations  in  the  Epistle  evidently  relate  ;  they  touch  upon  the 
person  of  the  new  prophet — upon  his  individual  feelings,  and 
the  witness  which  he  bore,  by  his  life  rather  than  by  tiis  words. 
They  show  how  he  whose  inspiration  most  raised  him  above  other 
men,  became,  in  virtue  of  that  inspiration,  more  completely  their 
brother,  even  in  the  depth  of  their  sorrow;  how  it  obliged  him 
to  greater  trust,  to  more  entire  dependence  than  other  men  ; 
how,  instead  of  lifting  him  above  human  relations,  it  turned 
those  relations  into  means  through  which  he  himself  appre- 
hended, and  enabled  others  to  apprehend,  the  divine  relation. 
There  is  a  strange  ambiguity  in  the  words  which  the  writer  of  the 
Epistle  wishes  us  to  take  notice  of.  It  could  only  be  removed 
when  it  w^as  clearly  shown,  how  he  that  sanctifieth  and  they 
who  are  sanctified  are  all  of  one  nation.  As  the  idea  of  a  king 
could  only  be  realized  in  one  who  showed  that  he  had  dominion 
over  nature  and  over  man  ;  so  the  idea  of  a  prophet  could  only 
be  realized  in  one  who  showed  that  he  had  entire  fellowship  with 
the  lowest  estate  of  men,  in  one  who  because  the  children  were 
partakers  of  flesh  and  blood,  himself  took  part  of  the  same  ; 
who,  because  they  were  all  their  lives  long  subject  to  the  fear  of 
death,  himself  entered  into  and  overcame  it. 


502  LECTURE    II. 

III.  In  each  of  these  offices,  that  of  the  King  and  that  of  the 
Prophet,  there  had  been  evident  signs  of  incompleteness — a  wit- 
ness of  something  mightier  behind,  which  would  be  revealed  : 
And  each  seemed  obviously  to  require  the  other  ;  the  meaning 
of  neither  could  be  fulfilled  till  they  were  united.  But  was  there 
this  incompleteness  in  the  character  of  Moses,  their  first  legisla- 
tor ?  Was  not  the  practical  authority  of  the  Divine  King  mar- 
vellously united  in  him  with  that  of  the  suffering  Prophet  ?  Had 
not  the  awful  Name  been  spoken  to  him  out  of  the  bash  ?  Had 
he  not  been  forty  days  and  nights  in  the  Mount,  in  communion 
with  the  Lord  God  of  Israel .?  Yet  had  he  not  also  been  the 
guide  of  the  people  through  the  desert,  bearing  their  burdens 
and  sins,  feeling  with  them,  interceding  for  them  ?  There  must 
have  been  a  thought  of  this  kind  in  the  mind  of  every  Jew;  and 
these  Christian  Jews  who  were  disposed  to  look  upon  their 
Master  as  the  great  reviver  and  restorer  of  the  Jewish  law  and 
polity  would  be  tempted  to  it  as  much  as  any.  If  the  writer  had 
followed  a  chronological  order  he  would  have  met  this  difficulty 
first.  But  he  could  not  have  met  it  effectually  if  he  had  not 
shown  beforehand  what  was  implied  in  their  later  history,  in  the 
covenant  with  David,  in  the  teaching  of  him  and  the  holy  men 
who  followed  him.  He  had  gathered  from  them  that  a  Son 
of  God  had  been  promised  to  the  Jewish  nation,  and  that  its 
greatness  could  not  be  realized  except  in  such  a  person.  Now, 
admitting  all  the  glory  which  was  ascribed  to  Moses,  it  was  cer- 
tain that  he  had  never  claimed  this  honor — that  he  had  expressly 
disclaimed  it.  He  had  proved  himself  a  faithful  servant — the 
servant  in  a  great  house  or  family  which  God  was  raising  up.  If 
there  were  such  a  Divine  family,  it  must  have  a  ruler  as  well  as 
a  servant.  The  acts  and  words  and  office  of  Moses,  too,  must 
have  been  a  prophecy  ;  a  Son  of  God  must  have  been  implied  in 
them,  who  should  fully  realize  the  idea  of  one  admitted  into  the 
Divine  converse,  and  sharing  human  griefs.  The  legislator  must 
be  a  witness  of  things  to  be  spoken  hereafter.  Did  not  the  jour- 
neyings  of  the  Israelites  through  the  wilderness,  as  they  were 
felt  then,  and  interpreted   afterwards,  betoken  an  imperfection  ? 


CAP.    III.    VV.     I-I9.       THE    LAWGIVER.  503 

Their  state  was  one  of  progress  and  transition.  They  were  on 
their  way  to  a  place  of  rest — a  rest  to  which  Moses  was  not 
allowed  to  bring  them.  All  the  way  this  promise  was  set  before 
them  ;  they  were  to  trust  that  it  would  be  fulfilled, — their  distrust 
was  the  cause  that  they,  and  even  that  their  leader,  died  without 
seeing  the  land. 

IV.  Into  that  land,  however,  Joshua  led  them.  Was  not  this 
then  the  accomplishment  of  the  promise  .'*  This  question  leads 
the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  notice  another  Jewish  institution — 
one  which  had  been  pronounced  holy  by  Moses,  but  in  such  lan- 
guage as  showed  it  to  have  been  possessed  from  an  earlier  time, 
— one  which  had  mightily  affected  the  life  of  every  Jew,  and 
which  he  still  preserved  with  almost  idolatrous  reverence.  The 
sabbath  day  had  been  expressly  connected  with  the  hope  of  a 
rest  in  Canaan.  But  the  keeping  of  it  had  been  enjoined  in 
other  and  solemner  words,  which  connected  it  with  the  Rest  of 
God.  The  twofold  idea  of  God  resting  in  the  beholding  of  that 
which  he  had  made,  and  of  man  resting  in  the  beholding  of  God, 
had  been  embodied  in  it.  And  all  through  the  writings  of  holy 
men  (one  or  two  passages  might  serve  as  an  index  to  hundreds), 
we  trace  the  sense  of  a  higher  rest,  not  attained  by  the  conquest 
of  Canaan, — of  a  day  implied  in  that  sabbath-day, — of  something 
in  its  meaning  not  yet  accomplished,  though  the  works  had  been 
finished  from  the  foundation  of  the  world.  No  Jew,  the  writer 
contends,  could  understand  the  Scriptures,  could  expect  the  ful- 
filment of  the  promise  made  to  the  Fathers,  who  was  not  looking 
for  such  a  rest :  he  must  be  repeating  the  sin  of  his  forefathers 
— the  very  sin  for  which  they  had  fallen  in  the  wilderness,  the 
sin  of  resting  in  the  present  and  the  visible,  of  not  confessing 
their  relation  to  an  unseen  Lord,  and  looking  to  have  all  the 
darkness  which  hung  over  that  relation  removed.  Nothing  but 
the  acknowledgment  of  One  in  whom  God  could  rest  and  man 
could  rest — in  whom  the  fellowship  between  heaven  and  earth 
was  fully  realized — could  satisfy  the  meaning  of  the  sabbath- 
day,  or  those  hopes  it  had  awakened  in  the  hearts  which  truly 
profited  by  it. 


504  LECTURE    II. 

V.  And  such  a  one  he  goes  on  to  say  must  be  a  priest,  the 
High  Priest  of  the  Universe.  This  office  was  naturally  more 
prominent  in  the  eyes  of  a  Hebrew  Christian  of  this  time  than 
any  other.  It  might  be  much  degraded  in  its  present  possessors, 
but  it  was  that  which  Aaron  had  fulfilled ;  they  had  the  law 
which  ordained  it ;  they  had  all  the  intervening  history  of  its 
preservation  and  restoration.  This  subject  henceforth  becomes 
the  leading  one  of  the  Epistle.  The  course  of  the  argument  may 
be  shortly  traced.  First,  the  writer  considers  what  a  Priest  must 
be.  He  is  appointed  for  man  in  things  that  pertain  to  God  ;  he 
must  therefore  share  the  feelings  and  wants  of  men,  and  there 
must  be  clear  evidence  that  he  does  not  take  the  office  himself, 
but  is  called  to  it  by  God.  So  much  the  Jew  would  at  once  con- 
cede, and  he  would  say,  "  Our  priest  satisfies  both  conditions. 
He  is  one  of  our  nation  ;  he  belongs  to  us  and  feels  with  us,  yet 
he  is  one  of  a  tribe  openly  designated  by  the  words  of  the  Law, 
to  this  express  service."  True,  says  the  writer  of  the  Epistle, 
but  does  this  legal  designation  of  a  Priest  satisfy  the  idea  of  the 
High  Priest  which  your  holy  men,  brought  up  under  the  Law, 
themselves  had  .''  The  iioth  Psalm  speaks  of  a  Priest  after  the 
order  of  Melchizedek — speaks  of  such  an  order  as  the  highest 
conceivable.  What  kind  of  order  was  this  ?  Your  early  records 
tell  you  that  Abraham,  returning  from  the  slaughter  of  the  kings, 
found  a  priest  already  dwelling  in  that  which  was  afterwards  the 
holy  city.  His  name  denotes  him  to  have  been  a  king.  Nothing 
is  said  of  his  father  or  mother,  or  of  the  nation  to  which  he  be- 
longed ;  yet  Abraham,  the  father  of  your  nation,  the  ancestor  of 
the  Levitical  tribe,  recognizes  his  right  to  the  office  which  he 
holds,  and  performs  an  act  of  homage  to  him.  And  the  Psalmist 
thinks  of  this  kind  of  priesthood,  resting  on  no  formal  enactment, 
denoted  by  no  tribe  or  national  distinction,  as  the  highest  of  all. 
He  evidently  supposes  that  a  priest  may  be — that  the  highest 
Priest  must  be — called  to  his  office  in  some  more  direct,  absolute 
way  than  by  an  outward  Law,  however  solemnly  proclaimed. 
And  does  not  the  writer  of  the  Psalm  himself  intimate  what  the 
designation   of  such  a  priest  must  be.-*     The  oath — "Thou  art 


THE    SABBATH. THE    HIGH    PRIEST.  505 

my  Son,  this  day  have  I  begotten  thee ;  " — must  lie  at  the  root 
of  such  an  appointment :  only  a  filial  priest  can  satisfy  the  idea 
of  a  priest.  Only  one  who,  like  Melchizedek,  is  both  king  and 
priest, — only  one  who  is  manifested  by  some  tokens  to  be  a  Son 
of  God, — can  really  satisfy  the  first  condition  of  a  perfect  Media- 
tor. He  goes  on  to  say,  that  only  such  a  person  can  satisfy  the 
second  condition — that  the  sinfulness  of  the  priest  was  itself  a 
hinderance,  the  great  hinderance,  to  that  entire  fellowship  and 
sympathy  with  a  sinful  creature,  which  is  implied  in  the  idea. 
Only  One,  holy,  harmless,  separate  from  sinners,  could  really  be 
so  touched  with  the  feeling  of  their  infirmities,  as  to  be  the  need- 
ful Intercessor  for  them.  Only  One  who  has  been  on  earth,  ar»d 
suffered  death,  and  passed  into  the  heavens ;  only  One  who  is 
now  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  could  have  that  permanent  priest- 
hood, which  the  legal  succession  in  the  family  of  Aaron  had 
indicated.  Only  One  who  had  actually  gone  out  of  the  vis- 
ible world  into  the  presence  of  the  unseen  God,  could  lead  men 
into  it. 

VI.  The  idea  of  a  constitution  anterior  to  all  formal  enact- 
ments, grounded,  as  we  might  say,  in  the  nature  of  things,  or,  as 
it  is  here  expressed  more  devout  and  accurately,  on  the  "  oath  of 
God,"  has  been  distinctly  brought  before  us  in  these  remarks 
upon  the  priesthood  and  upon  Melchizedek ;  it  has  evidently 
been  assumed  throughout  the  letter.  Upon  it  the  writer  pro- 
ceed^ to  ground  another  doctrine.  Christ,  he  says,  being  as- 
cended on  high,  has  become  the  Mediator  of  a  New  Covenant. 
Now  the  Jew's  Covenant  was  of  all  things  the  most  sacred  in  his 
eyes.  He  might  reluctantly  acknowledge  that  the  coming  of  Christ 
had  made  it  more  comprehensive,  that  the  Gentile  had  been 
admitted  into  some  of  the  privileges  of  it.  But  it  was  made  ex- 
pressly to  his  fathers  and  to  him ;  the  highest  gift  he  could  claim 
was  the  fulfilment  of  it.  No  conviction  could  be  sounder — his 
teacher  would  by  all  means  strengthen  him  in  it.  But  what  ful- 
filment was  he  looking  for  ?  The  priesthood  was  felt  to  require 
something  deeper  than  a  mere  ordinance  or  appointment.  The 
Covenant,  too,  must  rest  on  something  deeper.     Their  prophet 


506  LECTURE    II. 

Jeremiah  had  felt  that  it  must.  He  had  spoken  of  a  New  Cove- 
nant to  be  made  in  the  latter  days — of  which  this  should  be  the 
tenor :  "  I  will  write  my  laws  in  their  hearts,  and  in  their  minds 
will  I  write  them."  The  prophet  had  evidently  seen  that  the 
Covenant,  too,  was  based  upon  something  older  than  the  mere 
choice  of  a  particular  family  or  nation.  It  must  be  referred  to 
that  constitution  in  the  Son  of  God,  which  exalted  not  a  nation 
only,  but  mankind.  It,  too,  could  only  be  fulfilled,  according  to 
the  prophet's  anticipation,  by  the  ascension  of  a  Man  to  the  right 
hand  of  God  ;  by  the  gift  of  the  fiiial  Spirit,  who  should  indeed 
write  the  Law  in  the  heart  of  the  worshipper — who  should  change 
it  from  the  law  of  a  carnal  commandment  into  the  power  of  an 
endless  life. 

VII.  Having  established  the  twofold  assertion,  that  Man  was 
brought  into  the  presence  of  God  by  the  ascension  of  Christ,  and 
that  he  was  treated  as  a  spiritual  being,  to  be  ruled  and  guided 
by  God's  Spirit,  he  proceeds  to  consider  the  divine  Worship. 
The  ark  which  had  gone  along  with  the  Jews  through  the  desert, 
the  temple  which  was  raised  on  mount  Zion,  had  testified  to  them 
from  generation  to  generation,  that  the  Lord  was  in  the  midst  of 
them.  Their  disbelief  of  it  had  been  their  greatest  sin,  the 
ground  of  all  other  sins.  And  yet  this  Temple  had  itself  borne 
witness  that  there  was  something  hidden  from  the  view  of  the 
worshipper.  There  had  been  a  veil  over  the  mercy-seat.  They 
had  been  reminded  by  those  very  figures  which  they  prized  so 
much,  that  into  the  pure  and  perfect  presence  of  Him  whom 
they  served  they  were  not  yet  admitted.  Yet  surely  every  thing 
in  their  Covenant  and  their  discipline  had  been  teaching  them 
to  be  satisfied  with  nothing  less  than  this.  Every  thing  had 
been  meant  to  draw  away  their  minds  from  the  visible  to  the 
invisible,  from  the  shadowy  to  the  real.  If  they  had  entered 
into  the  temple-worship — if  they  had  really  sought  the  Unseen 
Presence — they  could  not  be  content  until  the  figures  were  ex- 
changed for  the  reality ;  until  they  had  the  power  of  entering 
into  that  reality — of  holding  actual  and  awful  communion  with 
the  living  God. 


THE    SERVICE    OF    THE    TEMPLE.  507 

VIII.  But  what  was  the  Veil  ?  Those  other  services,  the 
purifications,  told  them  what  it  was.  There  was  something 
overshadowing  the  heart  of  the  worshipper,  which  separated  it 
from  Him  to  whom  it  would  draw  nigh.  It  was  the  inner  man 
that  aspired  to  that  fellowship  wdth  the  unseen  God.  It  was 
within,  in  himself,  that  he  found  the  obstruction.  All  the  ap- 
pointed ceremonies  for  the  purification  of  the  flesh,  reminded 
him  of  the  fact,  Ijut  could  not  change  it.  The  Covenant  told 
him  that  there  was  something  from  which  he  must  be  separated, 
in  order  that  he  might  be  united  to  God.  The  blood  which  was 
sprinkled  on  the  book  of  the  Covenant,  up'on  the  worshippers, 
and  upon  all  the  vessels  of  the  temple,  seemed  to  connect  purifi- 
cation in  some  way  wdth  death.  All  this  was  a  wonderful  educa- 
tion, doubtless,  for  the  mind  and  spirit  of  the  man  ;  but,  like 
every  other  part  of  the  Jewish  discipline,  it  was  leading  him  to 
perceive  a  relation  between  the  Creator  and  himself,  which  must 
subsist  in  a  living  person,  not  in  a  thing — an  animal  ;  leading 
him  to  expect  that  that  Person  would  in  some  manner  show  what 
sacrifice  meant,  what  death  meant,  how  that  which  seemed  to 
divide  every  creature  from  the  other,  and  to  be  the  witness  of 
his  separation  from  God,  could  be  the  instrument  and  bond  of 
his  reconciliation. 

IX.  That  the  psalmists  and  prophets  of  the  Jews  learnt  to 
feel  that  all  purification  was  insufficient  which  did  not  reach  the 
conscience,  their  solemn  confessions  and  prayers  abundantly 
prove.  The  51st  Psalm  is  only  a  specimen — though  it  may  be 
the  most  remarkable — of  the  tone  which  pervades  them  all.  But 
the  mystery  of  Sacrifice  itself,  though  connected  with  the  purifi- 
cations and  with  every  other  Jewish  service,  yet  stood  out  dis- 
tinctly as  if  it  involved  something  deeper  than  all  the  rest  ;  and 
it  had  revealed  itself  to  them  through  still  more  fearful  struggles 
and  doubts,  sometimes  reaching  to  despair.  The  writer  of  the 
Epistle  refers  to  the  40th  Psalm,  as  illustrating  the  whole  subject. 
He  whose  feelings  are  described  there,  seemed  to  himself  to  be 
sticking  in  deep  mire  where  no  ground  was.  There  was  a  fath- 
omless abyss  within  him  which  no   ordinances  of  God,  no  pro- 


508  LECTURE    II. 

visions  of  his  grace  that  he  knew  or  could  imagine,  were  able  to 
close  up.  But  he  waited  patiently  for  the  Lord,  and  by  degrees 
he  saw  implied  in  that  Institution,  which  of  itself  availed  him 
nothing,  One  who  could  offer  the  real,  acceptable  sacrifice  ;  One 
who  could  say,  "  Lo  !  I  come  :  in  the  volume  of  the  book  it  is 
written  of  me,  to  do  thy  will,  O  God. ..Yea,  thy  law  is  within  my 
heart."  This  entire  consent  of  the  will  to  the  divine  will,  he 
saw  must  be  the  ground  of  all  sacrifice.  Resistance  to  that 
divine,  loving  will,  he  saw  had  been  the  curse  and  misery  of  man 
— that  which  divided  every  one  from  his  fellows.  He  who  de- 
lighted to  do  it,  who  had  the  law  in  the  heart,  must  be  the  Man. 
He  must  fulfil  the  idea  of  Man  ;  and  yet  He  must  be  the  Son  of 
God,  in  whom  the  very  Being  and  Character  of  God  would  shine 
forth.  All  other  notions  of  sacrifice,  he  saw,  were  either  leading 
to  this  or  else  were  false  :  this  only  could  take  away  the  sin  of  the 
world,  its  disobedience  and  selfishness.  He  who  could  offer  it 
must  be  the  reconciler  of  God  and  man ;  the  living  complete 
atonement  between  heaven  and  earth  ;  He  who  by  the  Eternal 
Spirit  offered  Himself  to  God,  could  alone  purge  the  conscience 
from  dead  works  to  serve  the  living  (Jod  ;  could  alone  give  that 
Spirit  by  which  all  creatures  united  in  Him  might  offer  them- 
selves as  sacrifices  well  pleasing  to  the  Father. 

Thus  far  we  have  traced  the  evolution  of  that  great  truth 
which,  according  to  the  writer  of  the  Epistle,  lies  at  the  root  of 
the  new  Economy  through  the  different  portions  of  the  old.  I 
would  beseech  you  not  hastily  to  exchange  this  view  of  the  Jewish 
Scriptures  for  a  more  modern  one.  Oftentimes  learned  men  seem 
to  satisfy  themselves  with  a  phrase  of  this  kind,  "  a  Theocratic 
Idea  lies,"  they  say,  "  at  the  basis  of  the  Jewish  commonwealth.'' 
Now  I  am  far  from  affirming  that  such  an  expression  means  no- 
thing to  those  who  use  it.  They  should  ask  themselves  seriously 
7vhat  it  means, — should  determine  that  they  will  not  be  the  vic- 
tims,— as  so  many  in  all  ages  have  been— of  their  own  general- 
izations. Still  it  may  convey  the  kind  of  apprehension  which 
they  have  upon  this  subject  more  correctly  and  honestly  than  a 
form  of  language  which  would  seem  to  me  more  real  and  living. 


THE    THEOCRATIC    IDEA.  509 

But  I  would  earnestly  remind  you,  that  we  do  not  by  such  para- 
phrases attain  to  any  nearer  conception  of  this  writer's  meaning  ; 
that,  on  the  contrary,  we  destroy  it  altogether.  He  thought  that 
the  living  God  had  actually  made  Himself  known  to  the  Jewish 
people ;  that  He  was  their  King  and  Teacher  ;  that  their  insti- 
tutions were  His  institutions  ;  that  through  them,  and  through 
every  event  of  their  history,  He  was  educating  them  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  Himself.  This  education  he  affirms  was  bearing  towards 
one  object.  He  would  speak  to  men  in  the  latter  days  by  a  Son  ; 
by  One  who  had  always  been  a  Son  ;  who  was  the  brightness  of 
His  glor}  and  the  express  image  of  His  person  ;  in  whom  He 
made  the  worlds.  By  what  methods  He  unveiled  this  Son  to  the 
hearts  and  spirits  of  His  servants,  showing  them  that  He  was  im- 
plied in  every  part  of  their  polity  ;  that  their  life,  personal  and  so- 
cial, was  intelligible  only  in  Him  ;  that  they  could  only  attain  their 
true  stature  as  Israelites  and  as  men,  when  they  were  permitted 
fully  to  behold  themselves  and  to  behold  God  in  Him,  we  learn 
from  those  passages  which  I  have  here  been  considering.  It  seems 
to  me  that  we  cannot  gain  much  by  reducing  these  passages  under 
the  general  formula,  "  They  merely  set  forth  the  theocratic  idea  of  a 
Jew  ;  "  but  that  by  patiently  considering  them,  we  may  know,  a  lit- 
tle better  than  we  are  wont  to  do,  what  that  theocratic  idea  was. 
We  may  find  that  it  was  no  notion  of  a  Being  sometimes  inter- 
fering by  strange  acts  in  the  administration  of  this  world's  affairs  ; 
or  of  a  sovereign  determining  of  his  mere  pleasure  that  a  certain 
nation  should  be  better  than  all  others  ;  or  of  a  lawgiver  laying 
down  arbitrary  rules  to  be  observed  under  certain  terrible  penal- 
ties, and  the  promise  of  certain  rewards.  These  notions  might 
arise  very  frequently  in  the  minds  of  Jews  ;  they  had  such  a  re- 
lation to  the  truths  which  they  counterfeited,  that  it  was  easy  to 
justify  them  by  particular  words  'and  acts  viewed  apart  from  the 
whole  sense  and  object  of  the  revelation.  But  they  were,  under 
one  form  or  other,  precisely  the  notions  which  the  prophets  of 
old  had  rebuked  ;  in  opposition  to  which  they  had  proclaimed 
the  Lord  God  of  righteousness,  who,  by  a  divine  order,  devised, 
directed  by  Himself,  was  leading  His  creatures  away  from  the 


510  LECTURE    II. 

idols  of  sense  which  divided  and  brutalized  them,  into  the  knowl- 
edge of  Him,  the  unseen  and  living  Lord,  the  God  of  all  the 
families  of  the  earth,  and  thus  into  the  free  exercise  of  the 
capacities  which  that  knowledge  alone  could  satisfy,  and  of  every 
other  capacity  which  He  had  bestowed  upon  them  for  their  good 
and  His  glory. 


LECTURE   111. 

THE  FILIAL  DISPENSATION. 


HEBREWS  XI.  39—40- 

And  these  all  having  obtained  a  good  report  through  faith,  received 
not  the  promise:  God  having  provided  some  better  thing  for  us, 
that  they  without  us  should  not  be  made  perfect. 

However  desirable  it  may  be  to  understand  rightly  the  sense  in 
which  the  Jews  were  subject  to  a  divine  Ruler,  we  are  often  told 
that  the  question  is  one  only  of  historical  interest.     That  crisis 
which  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  looked  for,  was,  it  is  said,  the  ter- 
mination of  theocratical  government.     This  opinion  seems  to  be 
maintained  with  almost  equal  strength  by  those  who  believe  the 
Jewish  theocracy  to  have  been  real,  and  by  those  who  suppose 
it  to  have  been  a  mere  conception  or  habit  of  thought  character- 
istic of  a  Semitic  people.     The  former  express  themselves  in 
words  of  this  kind  ;  "  The  Jewish   nation  stood  alone  in  the 
world.     The   other  nations  were  under  a  general  providential 
direction  ;  the  Jews  were  in  a  peculiar  sense  under  a  divine 
King.     Not  merely  the  provision  for  their  bodies,  the  time  of 
their  births  and  deaths,  was  appointed  by  the  Lord  of  all ;  the 
order   of  their  society  was  established  and  directed  by  Him, 
towards  a  particular  end.     When  that  end  was  accomplished  it 
was  no   longer  needful   that  such   a  government    should   exist 
among  men.     The  awful  words,  which  were  heard  in  the  temple, 
"Let ''us  depart,"   the  events  which    interpreted  these   words, 
showed  that  it  had  ceased.     The   Canon  of  Scripture  became 

(5") 


512  LECTURE    III. 

the  one  record  of  its  existence.  The  others  speak  thus  :  "  In 
the  infancy  of  society  it  was  desirable,  perhaps  necessary,  that 
men  should  feel  themselves  under  some  mysterious  guidance. 
Not  only  the  Hebrews  spoke  of  such  a  rule  ;  each  nation  fancied 
it  had  some  tutelary  divinity  ;  most  were  led  by  conquests,  or  by 
mixture  with  other  people,  to  enlarge  tnc.v  mythology  ;  thus  they 
lost  the  definite  sense  of  a  Governor  which  they  had  at  first ; 
some,  the  Greeks  especially,  by  degrees  found  a  philosophical 
explanation  of  their  early  personifications.  The  Hebrews,  sepa- 
rated by  circumstances  and  rigid  customs  from  other  lands,  pre- 
served the  feeling  of  their  tribe  for  a  much  longer  period  ;  the 
priests  kept  it  in  existence  by  artificial  contrivances  when  the 
nation  had  really  outlived  it;  at  last  it  could  endure  no  longer; 
the  army  of  Vespasian  destroyed  it  along  with  the  shrine  in 
which  it  had  so  long  dwelt.  Thenceforth  the  world  began  a 
freer  course  ;  often,  indeed,  haunted  and  oppressed  by  the  old 
theocratic  decrees,  revived  and  assuming  new  forms  ;  but  gradu- 
ally emancipating  itself  from  such  dreams,  and  struggling  toward 
a  period  of  full  development,  when  they  should  be  dispersed  al- 
together." 

We  may  concede  at  once  to  this  last  class  of  reasoners  two 
points  in  which  they  are  at  variance  with  the  former.  In  what- 
ever sense  the  Jewish  nation  was  peculiar  it  was  not  so  in  this 
sense,  that  it  alone  of  all  people  recognized  a  divine  govern- 
ment. In  whatever  sense  the  Jewish  institutions  were  peculiar 
they  were  not  so  in  this  sense,  that  the  other  nations  had  nothing 
corresponding  to  them.  Among  those  which  we  have  seen  pass- 
ing under  the  review  of  the  writer  of  this  Epistle,  only  one  was 
exclusively  Hebrew.  The  sabbath-day  belonged  strictly  to  the 
Israelite.  Kings,  prophets,  lawgivers,  priests,  temples,  purifica- 
tions, sacrifices,  were  to  be  found  everywhere.  Will  it  be  said 
that  there  was  nothing  common  between  these  names  in  the 
Hebrew  and  the  Gentile  use  of  them  ?  Does  not  history  tell  us 
clearly  that  in  every  land  the  conviction  existed,  that  the  visible 
king  must  have  an  invisible  counterpart ;  that  there  must  be  men 
whose  words  proceeded  from  a  fountain  of  inward  inspiration; 


THEOCRACY    IN    WHAT    SENSE    GENERAL.  513 

that  law  must  have  a  divine  authority  and  sanction  ;  that  build- 
ings must  be  set  apart  to  some  distinct  permanent  object  of 
worship ;  that  the  worshipper  must  be  separated  from  earthly 
pollutions  ;  that  the  worshipper  must  offer  to  the  God  that  which 
had  been  given  to  him,  that  which  was  dearest  to  him,  even  him- 
self. Had  not  these  institutions  a  like  signification  to  the  Jew  ? 
Was  he  sent  into  the  world  to  tell  men,  '*  The  convictions  which 
your  institutions  indicate  are  false,  are  untenable,  are  merely  the 
fruits  of  your  own  invention  or  wit  ?  "  Was  he  not  rather  com- 
missioned to  say,  "  These  convictions  are  true  ;  deeply  true,  and 
you  must  have  received  them  from  God.  For  see  how  you  have 
corrupted  them  by  your  inventions.  The  invisible  King  is  not 
the  image  of  the  visible,  but  his  archetype  ;  the  inspiration  of 
the  prophet  is  wholly  spiritual,  not  produced  by  the  exhalations 
of  any  fountain  ;  it  is  the  I  Am,  not  a  wood-nymph,  who  teaches 
the  lawgiver ;  the  priest  enters  an  unseen  Presence  of  which  he 
may  conceive  no  likeness  ;  the  idol  in  the  Temple  destroys  its 
witness  for  the  distinction  of  God  from  the  works  of  his  hands  ; 
purifications  must  signify  that  it  is  the  inner  man  who  approaches 
the  unseen  living  God,  or  they  signify  nothing  ;  sacrifices  must 
express  the  submission  of  the  lower  will  to  the  true  divine  absolute 
will,  they  cannot  be  the  means  of  bringing  the  higher  will  into 
consent  with  the  lower."  Was  it  not  the  great  sign  of  the  Jew's 
high  calling,  that  he  was  able  to  bear  this  witness  to  the  world, 
against  its  evil  tendencies  and  his  own  ?  His  covenant  was, 
"  In  thee  and  thy  seed  shall  all  the  families  of  the  earth  be 
blessed."  I  cannot  conceive  a  clearer  evidence  of  the  reality  of 
his  covenant,  a  more  wonderful  explanation  of  its  meaning  than 
this,  that  he  did  not  trample  upon  the  faith  of  mankind,  but  jus- 
tified it ;  preserved  it  from  perishing  under  the  mass  of  evil  with 
\vhich  it  had  become  encrusted  ;  foretold  that  the  blessing  which 
he  expected  for  himself  would  satisfy  the  desire  of  all  nations, 
that  the  glory  of  Israel  would  be  a  light  to  lighten  the  Gentiles. 
From  first  to  last  he  testified  against  those  idolatries  which  of 
necessity  divided  the  nations  from  the  one  Lord  in  whom  they 
might  be  one.     There  is  no  pretext  then  for  the  notion  that  the 


514  LECTURE    III. 

theocracy  would  of  course  pass  away,  when  the  exclusive  position 
of  the  Jewish  nation  became  no  longer  tenable,  because  it  was 
bound  up  with  that  exclusive  position.  Suppose  it  to  be  a 
truth,  and  not  a  fiction,  it  was  a  truth  for  mankind ;  it  was  as- 
serted to  be  such  by  the  cries  of  all  the  people  of  the  earth ;  it 
was  asserted  to  be  such  by  the  Jewish  separation. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  it  were  a  fiction,  and  not  a  truth,  I  quite 
admit  that  it,  like  all  other  fictions,  could  only  last  a  certain 
period,  and  that  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  was  an  event  which 
was  as  likely  as  any  to  determine  its  existence, — nay,  was  otie 
which  it  could  scarcely  survive.  Only  I  contend  that  those  who 
maintain  this  hypothesis,  must  do  something  more  than  merely 
repeat  the  phrases,  "  proper  to  an  infantine  state  of  society  ;  " 
"preserved  beyond'  its  natural  date  by  the  skill  of  priests;" 
"crushed  at  last  by  the  Roman  legions" — which  may  be  so 
easily  repeated  when  they  have  once  been  learned  by  heart.  It 
becomes  them  to  show  by  what  other  belief  than  this,  that  the 
unseen  Lord  was  their  King,  the  Israelite  was  preserved  from 
that  subjection  to  sensual  impressions,  which  is  commonly  con- 
sidered a  great  characteristic  of  infancy,  and  was  characteristic 
of  him  in  spite  of  his  Semitic  derivation.  It  becomes  them  to 
show  by  what  other  faith  than  this  he  was  enabled  to  resist  the 
taunts  and  persecutions  of  priests  and  prophets  in  a  hundred 
groves  and  high  places,  who  accused  him  of  being  irreligious, 
even  atheistic,  and  whom  he  could  only  answer  by  saying, 
"Whether  I  be  religious  I  know  not  and  care  not ;  I  adhere  to 
tlie  Covenant  which  God  made  with  my  fathers  and  with  me  ;  I 
obey  his  law."  Lastly,  they  ought  to  consider  whether  the  belief 
has  ever  passed  out  of  the  heart  of  any  living  man,  that  his  per- 
sonal and  social  life  is  as  sacred  as  the  course  of  the  planets  and 
the  succession  of  day  and  night ;  whether  that  belief  has  not 
been  strongest  when  men  have  been  most  brave  and  free,  weak- 
est when  they  have  been  most  base  and  cowardly  ;  whether  it  be 
not  easier  for  one  whose  heart  and  reason  are  awake,  to  think  of 
the  order  of  nature  as  exempt  from  the  habitual  government  of 
a  divine  will,  than  to  think  of  himself,  his  relations  to  his  fellow- 


THE    CITY    AND    THE    KINGDOM.    CAP.  XI.,  XII.  515 

men,  the  evolution  of  events,  the  order  of  history  under  such  a 
condition  ? 

The  writer  of  this  Epistle  certainly  could  not  have  borne  such 
a  contemplation.  His  mind  had  been  formed  in  the  belief  that 
the  more  perfectly  man  is  brought  under  the  divine  government, 
the  more  blessed  his  state  is  ;  that  to  escape  from  it  is  to  be  ac- 
cursed. His  conviction  that  the  greatest  blessing  the  world  ever 
received  had  just  been  vouchsafed  to  it,  did  not  change  this 
belief,  but  deepened  and  established  it.  He  speaks  of  the  Patri- 
archs as  looking  for  "  a  city  which  had  foundations,  whose 
builder  and  maker  was  God."  Their  faith,  he  says,  substan- 
tiated the  promise,  but  they  did  not  receive  it :  the  actual  gift 
was  reserved  for  another  day.  Nay  (and  he  applies  the  words 
to  the  Jews  in  every  stage  of  their  history)  they  without  their  chil- 
dren could  not  he  made  perfect.  He  exhorts  the  Christians  of  his 
day  to  believe  that  they  had  received  a  kingdom  which  could  not  be 
vioved.  He  tells  them  that  the  coming  earthquake,  which  must 
shake  not  earth  only,  but  heaven,  would  make  it  manifest.  The 
natural  inference  from  such  words  certainly  must  be,  that  our 
Lord's  ascension  would  lead  to  the  establishment  of  some  fellow- 
ship of  a  larger,  deeper,  diviner  character  than  that  which  had 
existed  formerly.  I  cannot  understand  how  they  could  convey 
any  other  meaning  to  a  Hebrew  Christian. 

He  knew  what  had  been  told  him  of  the  fathers  of  his  nation. 
The  sense  of  belonging  to  a  divine  kingdom  had  gone  with  them 
all  their  lives  through  ;  the  dread  of  death  which  sometimes 
seized  them  was  the  dread  of  not  finding  that  kingdom  again 
when  they  had  passed  into  the  unseen  world — of  being  beyond 
the  region  of  the  divine  order  and  government.  The  hope  which 
sustained  them  was,  that  He  who  is  and  was  and  is  to  come, 
must  reign,  here  and  everywhere :  that  there  could  be  no  corner 
of  His  universe  over  which  He  would  not  one  day  assert  his 
dominion.  And  now,  says  the  writer  of  the  Epistle,  He  whom 
they  looked  for  is  come,  the  Son  over  the  house  ;  the  King  in 
whom  the  right  is.  And  the  city  that  hath  foundations  is  revealed, 
and  you  have  received  a  kingdom.     His    discourse  of  the  past 


5l6  LECTURE    III. 

swells  into  poetry.  His  vision  of  the  present  and  the  future 
l)ecomes  almost  a  rapture.  Could  he  mean  to  deceive  those 
whom  he  was  thus  preparing  for  the  most  tremendous  and  actual 
calamities  ?  Must  he  not  have  deceived  them,  if  his  sense  of  the 
words  "city  and  kingdom  "  did  not  in  the  least  correspond  to 
that  which  for  generations  had  been  affixed  to  them  ? 

There  is,  however,  a  passage  wherein  the  writer  speaks  of 
a  world  to  come  ivhich  is  not  subject  to  migels.  Here,  it  has  been 
said,  he  undoubtedly  alludes,  not  to  an  earthly,  but  a  heavenly 
society,  to  one  upon  which  men  enter  after  death.  If  so,  why 
may  not  this  passage  determine  the  meaning  of  those  which  are 
most  ambiguous?  Why  may  not  the  City  and  the  Kingdom,  as 
w'ell  as  the  "World,"  point  to  a  state  wholly  celestial  ?  I  have  no 
doubt  that  all  these  words  do  express  the  same  idea  ;  that  one  as 
much  as  another  denotes  a  state,  in  the  purest,  strictest  sense  of 
the  words,  heavenly ;  that  this  state  is  one  which  nothing  but 
death  can  fully  disclose  to  any  human  being,  seeing  that  He  who 
opened  it  did  Himself  first  overcome  the  sharpness  of  death. 
But  if  the  world  which  is  not  subject  to  angels,  be  one  into  which 
men  do  not  enter  till  death,  the  argument  of  the  Epistle  would  be 
set  at  nought.  The  writer  of  it  maintains  that  by  Christ's  resur- 
rection and  ascension  he  had  claimed  for  man  the  blessing  of 
fellowship  with  Him  who  is  Lord  of  angels.  In  the  earlier 
stages  of  his  growth,  when  he  had  not  yet  understood  the  highest 
capacities  of  his  being,  though  they  were  unfolding  themselves 
under  the  divine  education,  when  he  had  not  yet  realized 
his  true  position — though  God  was  in  different  methods  discover- 
ing it  to  him — there  was  reason  enough  why  he  should  feel  him- 
self subject  to  angels,  why  he  should  suppose  that  they  stood 
between  him  and  the  High  and  Holy  One.  His  pfivilege,  his 
duty,  was  now  utterly  to  deny  such  subjection,  such  mediation  ; 
to  reject  it  as  treason  against  that  Lord  who  had  taken  his 
nature  and  invested  him  with  his  spiritual  glory. 

You  see  at  once  that  this  statement  would  have  been  worth 
nothing,  if  it  had  been  possible  to  reply,  "  Yes ;  after  death 
w^e  may  doubtless  come  into  a  state  like  that  which  you  describe  ; 


THE    WORLD    TO    COME.  517 

on  earth  we  must  still,  according  to  your  own  showing,  remain 
subject  to  angelic  rulers,  be  dependent  upon  the  help  of  angelic 
intercessors."  The  world  to  come  whereof  the  Epistle  speaks, 
cannot  then,  I  conceive,  answer  to  our  ordinary  notion  of  a 
future  state  ;  it  must  denote  some  kind  of  order  established 
among  human  beings  even  here  ;  one  which  was  not  yet  shown 
to  be  the  divine  order  of  the  universe,  but  of  w^hich  Christ's 
coming  was  to  all  who  understood  its  meaning,  the  clear  indica- 
tion, the  corner-stone.  In  that  sense  it  will  accord  perfectly  with 
the  idea  of  a  city  or  kingdom,  to  which  the  Jew  had  been 
trained  by  his  long  course  of  discipline.  For  he  had  never  been 
taught  to  look  at  the  invisible  world  as  altogether  separate  and 
remote  from  that  in  which  he  was  living.  In  the  daily  toil  of 
life,  amidst  his  flocks  and  herds,  amidst  his  children,  on  the 
judgment-seat,  in  the  battle-field,  he  had  sought  God  and  found 
Him.  Could  that  have  seemed  to  him  a  more  perfect  state 
of  things  in  which  heaven  and  earth  should  be  hopelessly 
divided  ?  Above  all,  could  this  be  the  effect  and  blessing  of  His 
appearing,  who  was  the  Son  of  God  and  the  Son  of  Man,  who 
had  perfectly  hallowed  each,  and  who  was  gone  up  on  high? 
Would  not  the  change  he  had  reason  to  expect,  be  rather  that 
the  dream  of  a  ladder  set  upon  earth  and  reaching  to  heaven, 
should  now  become  a  firm,  substantial  reality  ? 

But  what  indications  were  there  that  such  a  society  would 
rise  out  of  the  ruins  of  the  Jewish  commonwealth  .>  Every  insti- 
tution which  the  heathen  had  received  as  the  witness  of  a  con- 
nection between  the  visible  and  the  invisible  world,  which  the 
Jew  had  recognized,  as  proceeding  from  the  Lord  of  all,  had  lost 
its  original  meaning,  had  become  changed  into  something  which 
contradicted  and  subverted  that  meaning.  The  idea  of  a  king 
ruling  in  the  name  of  an  unseen  King,  was  surely  not  preserved 
in  the  Herodian  princes,  or  in  any  of  the  tetrarchs  or  sovereigns, 
who  governed  by  the  permission  of  Rome  in  its  provinces. 
Practically  that  idea  had  been  merged  in  one  part  of  the  earth  as 
much  as  another,  in  the  acknowledgment  of  an  emperor,  a  com- 
mander of  armies,  in  his  own  apprehension  and  that  of  his  sub- 


5l8  LECTURE    III. 

jects  the  real  King  of  kings  and  God  of  gods.  Tlie  Prophet, 
from  whom  men  had  asked  a  higher  truth  than  they  could 
discover  for  themselves,  was  converted  among  the  heathen  into 
the  lying  augur;  if  any  one  claimed  the  name  in  Judaea,  it  was  on 
the  warrant  of  being  a  more  reckless  assassin  than  the  rest  of  his 
countrymen.  The  Law  in  which  the  Greek  had  heard  the 
Eternal  Voice,  upon  the  awe  of  which  Roman  greatness  had 
stood,  was  believed  to  rest  on  the  will  of  the  Caesar ;  the 
confidence  of  the  Jew  that  he  possessed  the  divine  Law  was  an 
excuse  with  him  for  the  perpetration  of  every  crime.  The  sab- 
bath-day had  been  a  main  reason  for  calling  Christ  a  blasphemer 
and  condemning  him  to  death.  The  priesthood  in  all  lands 
seemed  to  have  grounded  itself  upon  the  denial  of  any  thing  not 
visible.  Abominations  were  set  up  in  all  the  temples,  might 
soon  be  set  up  in  the  temple  in  Zion.  The  rites  for  purification 
were  changed  elsewhere  into  filthy  orgies — the  Jewish  rulers 
were  practicing  them  at  the  time  they  taught  the  people  to  shout, 
"Crucify  Him  !  "  before  Pilate's  judgment-hall.  Sacrifices  were 
prized  in  Rome  and  Jerusalem,  as  means  of  purchasing  the  right 
to  sin. 

If  from  these  spectacles  you  turned  to  the  different  Christian 
assemblies,  there  was  indeed,  amidst  much  that  was  discouraging, 
a  beautiful  realization  of  human  brotherhood,  of  devotion  to  an 
unseen  object.  But  how  would  a  bystander,  especially  if  he  were 
a  Jew,  have  regarded  the  ordinances  by  which  these  societies 
were  distinguished  ?  Would  he  not  have  said,  "  Truly  you  pre- 
serve the  ceremony  by  which  we  admit  Gentile  converts  to  the 
privileges  of  the  outer  sanctuary ;  you  say  this  is  a  sufficient  sign 
to  you  of  being  admitted  into  God's  covenant ;  you  have  again  a 
rite  which  seems  to  be  a  bond  or  love-pledge  to  a  departed 
Friend ;  you  permit  those  whom  He  chose  as  His  apostles 
to  exercise  a  kind  of  fatherly  government  over  you,  and  you  have 
provided  for  a  special  emergency  arising  out  of  the  outward, 
material  wants  of  your  members,  by  delegating  some  of  the 
duties,  which  these  apostles  at  first  took  upon  themselves,  to 
other  officers.     But  can  you  pretend  that  such  customs  as  these, 


•  THE    CHRISTIAN  ORDINANCES.  519 

which  no  awful  penal  edict  proceeding  from  the  throne  of  God 
has  created  or  enforced,  are  any  thing  to  compensate  for  the  loss 
of  those  sacred  institutions  which  all  nations  have  confusedly 
recognized ;  which  we  have  received  in  their  purity  from  the 
Lord  of  all,  and  by  Him  have  been  taught  to  understand  ?  " 

We  might  fancy  that  both  these  objections  had  been  overlooked 
by  the  writer  of  this  Epistle.  His  allusions  to  the  ordinances 
which  belonged  to  the  disciples  of  Jesus,  as  such,  are  rare.  He 
assumes  the  existence  of  Christian  assemblies,  for  he  warns  the 
Hebrew  Christian  not  to  forsake  them  ;  he  speaks  of  Baptism 
once  or  twice,  perhaps  once  of  the  Eucharist ;  the  fact  that  tnere 
were  persons  bearing  rule  in  the  Church  is  mentioned  inciden- 
tally, but  the  word  which  describes  the  rulers  is  the  most  indef- 
inite that  could  have  been  selected.  But  the  Jewish  objection 
to  the  dignity  and  sacredness  of  the  Christian  ordinances  had 
been  encountered  in  a  far  more  satisfactory  manner ;  the  whole 
doctrine  of  the  Epistle  is  an  answ^er  to  it.  The  Aaronic  priest- 
hood was  established  upon  a  formal  positive  law  ;  therefore^  con- 
tends this  writer,  did  those  who  possessed  it  feel  discontented 
with  it.  They  craved  for  a  priesthood  resting,  not  on  an  outward 
commandment,  but  on  the  oath  of  God.  The  priesthood  is  but 
one  application  of  this  principle,  though  perhaps  the  most 
remarkable.  Each  institution  is  shown  to  be  imperfect,  in  so  far 
forth  as  it  was  merely  an  institution  :  till  the  eternal  ground  of  it 
in  the  relation  of  Man  to  God,  in  the  relation  of  the  Divine 
Son  to  the  Father,  in  the  Self-affirming  Being  of  God,  was  mani- 
fested, its  truth  and  meaning  were  still  hidden.  When  this 
ground  had  been  declared,  that  converse  of  the  spirit  of  man 
with  God  for  which  he  had  been  educating  it,  would  be  in  the 
fullest  sense  possible.  Then  the  method,  whatever  it  might  be, 
which  the  divine  Wisdom  chose  for  setting  forth  the  relationship 
of  Humanity  with  God  as  a  realized  fact,  and  for  enabling  men, 
as  sharers  of  that  Humanity,  to  enter  into  the  highest  and  most 
mysterious  communion,  would  of  necessity  transcend  all  those 
previous  methods,  which,  till  they  w^ere  seen  in  the  light  of  that 
whereto   they  were   leading,  seemed   only  formal   and   arbitrary. 


520  LECTURE    III. 

Supposing  this  principle  to  be  admitted,  the  Christian  was 
entitled  to  say,  "  Just  because  these  ordinances  of  ours  have 
that  character  which  you  have  ascribed  to  them, — because 
they  do  not  come  forth  clothed  with  legal  penalties,  but  were 
merely  enjoined  in  a  few  loving  words,  because  they  speak  of  a 
relationship  to  One  Unseen  and  to  all  His  brethren,  because 
they  involve  an  obedience  of  the  inner  man  to  an  authority 
which  can  enforce  no  other  ;  therefore  do  they  embody  the  whole 
mystery  of  that  New  Dispensation,  which  law  and  letters  could 
only  at  a  distance  shadow  forth  and  describe.  Our  Master  was 
in  the  water  owned  as  the  Son  of  God  and  the  Spirit  descended 
upon  Him.  We  ask  no  other  witness  that  it  has  pleased  the 
Father  to  make  us  the  sons  of  God  in  Him,  and  to  endow 
us  with  His  Spirit ;  no  other  proof  that  in  us  Jews,  as  well  as  in 
heathens,  every  thing  which  is  our  own,  every  thing  which  we  do 
not  derive  from  God,  must  and  will  be  washed  and  purged  away. 
Our  Master  said,  the  night  he  was  betrayed,  '  This  is  my  Body, 
This  is  my  Blood.  Do  this  in  remembrance  of  me.'  We  ask  no 
other  proof  than  this  bread  and  wine,  that  place  does  not  sepa- 
rate from  Him  ;  that  we  are  truly  with  Him  now  that  He  has 
ascended  on  high,  as  He  was  with  us  when  He  came  down  and 
was  born  of  a  Virgin  and  died  for  us  ;  that  being  with  Him,  we 
are  united  to  all  who  own  Him  on  this  side  of  death  and  on  the 
other  :  that  He  can  raise  us  to  fellowship  with  them  and  Himself, 
enabling  us  to  give  up  our  selfish  position  :  that  He  can  fill  us 
with  His  own  life,  enabling  us  to  give  up  our  own  life.  We 
want  no  other  ground  for  obedience  to  His  Apostles,  than  the 
fact  that  He  chose  them.  A  fatherly  rule  we  feel  to  be  the 
highest  rule — one  which  speaks  to  our  spirits,  not  to  our  senses. 
A  filial  subjection  we  feel  to  be  the  most  perfect  subjection, 
because  it  is  that  subjection  of  the  spirit  which  only  the  Divine 
Spirit  can  bestow." 

Without  the  slighest  exaggeration,  then,  the  writer  of  this 
Epistle  could  speak  of  those  whom  he  addressed,  as  having 
come  to  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  as  being  admitted  into  the  com- 
pany of  the  first-born,  to  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect,  as 


THE    NEW   JERUSALEM.  521 

being  in  the  presence  of  Jesus  the  Mediator  of  the  New  Cove- 
nant, and  of  God  the  Judge  of  all.  Either  the  ordinances  which 
had  been  given  to  them  meant  nothing — were  mere  formalities 
and  therefore  impious — or  they  meant  this ;  they  implied  an 
actual  fellowship  between  earth  and  heaven  ;  they  declared  that 
man  had  been  brought  into  the  condition  for  which  all  the 
discipline  of  past  ages  had  been  preparing  him.  They  said 
that  the  revelation  of  the  Unseen  God,  which  prophets  and 
kings  longed  for,  had  been  made  to  the  children  of  the 
Covenant ;  they  said  that  the  words  of  that  Covenant,  "  In  thee 
and  in  thy  .seed  shall  all  the  families  of  the  earth  be  blessed,"' 
were  fulfilled,  for  that  the  blessing — emphatically  the  Jewish 
blessing,  the  glor^^  of  Israel — the  knowledge  of  God,  had  by 
their  seed  been  brought  within  the  reach  of  all  people  and 
nations  and  languages  ;  that  a  society  had  grown  out  of  the 
defined,  formal,  national  society,  which  could  have  no  limitation, 
because  its  basis  lay  in  the  original  constitution  of  Man,  that  is 
to  say,  in  Him  in  whom  all  things  were  created  ;  in  his  relation 
to  the  Father,  of  whose  glory  He  is  the  brightness,  of  whose  Per- 
son He  is  the  express  image. 

The  belief  that  a  heavenly  commonwealth  or  kingdom  such 
as  this,  was  already  established  upon  earth,  might  sustain  a 
Jewish  Christian  in  the  prospect  of  any  possible  dissolution  of 
that  fabric  which  God  had  raised  up  for  his  fathers  and  for  him. 
It  would  at  once  explain  to  him  why  he  was  not  to  look  for  any 
new  Sinai,  for  the  creation  of  any  order  of  priests  by  any  formal 
edict  to  succeed  the  tribe  of  Levi,  for  the  sudden  appearance  of 
any  heir  of  the  throne  of  David,  or  of  any  new  dynasty  to  assume 
the  place  of  the  old  covenant  kings.  By  such  expectations 
he  would  have  shown  that  he  had  not  entered  into  the  divine 
purpose,  that  he  had  not  taken,  in  the  prophetical  idea,  or  was 
content  to  live  without  a  real  adequate  fulfilment  of  it. 

But  was  there  no  answer  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Epistle,  to  that 
part  of  the  question  which  was  suggested,  not  by  a  notion  of  the 
feebleness  of  Christian  ordinances,  but  by  the  abuse  and  subver- 
sion of  those  institutions  in  which  heathens  and  Jews  had  both 


522  LECTURE    III, 

discerned  a  proof  of  the  Divine  Presence  ?  These  institutions 
still  existed  :  there  was  no  reason  to  suppose  they  would  pass 
away  in  that  judgment  which  overhung  the  Jewish  nation.  If 
they  survived  it  what  witness  would  there  be  upon  earth  that 
they  had  any  worth — that  they  were  not  the  original  rightful 
property  of  the  spirit  of  Oppression  and  Falsehood  ?  The  Jewish 
nation  was  bringing  forth  something  larger  and  deeper  than 
itself ;  it  would  die  in  its  travail.  How  would  its  child,  the  New 
Society,  be  related  to  these  old  social  forms?  Would  it  stand 
aloof  from  them  ;  would  it  extinguish  them  ;  would  it  cast  them 
'anew  ?  To  an  unbelieving  Jew  or  heathen  such  questions  would 
have  sounded  simply  ridiculous.  What  could  these  insignificant 
little  bodies,  the  oldest  of  which  could  hardly  maintain  its 
ground  in  the  country  of  its  birth,  have  to  do  with  the  great 
kingdom  of  the  world  ?  How  could  the  policy  of  the  emperor  and 
the  intricate  machinery  of  pagan  life  be  affected  by  the  presence 
of  these  men,  more  than  of  any  other  fanatics  or  criminals  who 
might  from  time  to  time  require  to  be  restrained  by  the  sword  of 
justice  or  by  a  contemptuous  toleration  ?  But  supposing  a  person 
in  that  or  any  later  day  to  have  believed  that  a  stone  had  been 
cut  out  of  the  mountain  without  hands,  which  must  in  time 
break  in  pieces  whatever  opposed  it,  would  this  Epistle  give  him 
any  help  in  ascertaining  whether  all  or  any  of  these  old  institu- 
tions could  co-exist  and  harmonize  with  that  power  which  had 
grown  up  in  the  midst  of  them  ;  and  if  so,  under  what  conditions  ? 
Let  us  examine  this  question  in  reference  to  each  of  them. 

I.  The  Davidean  king  had  been  a  witness  for  the  permanence 
of  the  nation  in  an  Unseen  Lord;  a  witness  that  the  king  and 
the  nation  were  alike  in  covenant  with  this  Lord,  that  their  union 
to  each  other  stood  in  their  common  allegiance  to  Him  ;  a  wit- 
ness against  all  idolatry  or  confusion  of  visible  things  with  the 
Invisible  Lord,  as  destructive  of  national  existence  ;  a  witness 
against  all  Babylonian  attempts  at  universal  dominion,  as  rebel- 
lious and  impious  efforts  of  the  creature  to  become  absolute  and 
independent. 

These  principles  and  objects  of  the  Jewish  kingdom  v/ere  for- 


THE    KING    IN    THE    NEW    DISPENSATION.  $23 

mally  enunciated  by  lawgivers  and  prophets  ;  were  interpreted 
by  the  progress  of  the  history.  In  them  lay  the  undeveloped 
truth  that  One  who  is  the  Son  of  God  and  the  Son  of  Man  is  the 
real  Head  of  Humanity  ;  the  promise  that  He  would  be  mani- 
fested as  the  Lord  of  the  universe.*  Among  those  who  believed 
that  this  truth  had  been  brought  to  light,  this  promise  accom- 
plished, was  there  any  place  for  a  visible  king  ? 

If  it  were  true  that  Humanity  had  been  glorified,  there  could 
be  no  one  claiming  to  be  a  king  of  the  exclusively  righteous 
Nation.  Yet  still  less  than  in  former  days  could  there  be  one 
claiming  to  be  king  of  the  world;  a  Roman  emperor  must  more 
interfere  with  the  belief  of  a  crucified  man  reigning  over  the 
creatures  whose  nature  he  had  taken,  than  a  Babylonian  monarch 
had  interfered  with  the  belief  of  an  unmanifested  King  seated  on 
the  holy  hill  of  Zion.  If  ever  the  conviction  became  strong  in 
any  number  of  hearts,  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  really  the  King 
of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords,  it  must  struggle  with  the  pretensions 
of  the  C^sar  to  that  title,  till  one  or  other  should  be  worsted. 
But  if  out  of  that  kingdom  a  number  of  distinct  nations  should 
appear,  would  it  be  any  thing  inconsistent  with  the  idea  of  a  new 
dispensation,  that  each  of  these  should  be  ruled  by  some  man 
confessing  allegiance  and  subjection  to  the  divine  Son  ;  reigning 
under  the  conditions  of  a  covenant ;  judging  the  people  in  His 
name  ;  even  carrying  on  a  war  with  false  gods,  not  wholly  unlike 
that  of  the  old  Jewish  monarchs  ? 

Is  there  any  thing  in  that  glorification  of  humanity  and  its  forms 
whereof  the  Epistle  speaks,  to  make  such  a  result  as  this  impos- 
sible ?  Might  not  one  rather  expect  that  if  such  a  revival  of 
national  existence  as  I  have  imagined  ever  took  place,  this 
would   be  the  great  sign,  in  some   sense  the   moving  principle 

of  it? 

II.  The  Jewish   prophet  was   a  witness  that  men  here  upon 

earth  are  capable  of  receiving  divine  communications  ;  that  every 

true  teacher  must  receive  them  ;  that  only  so  far  as  he  does 

receive   them  can  he  understand  the  past,  the  present,  or  the 

*  Fulfilling  the  command  to  "  have  dominion  "  over  the  earth. 


524  LECTURE    III. 

future,  or  sympathize  with  the  wants  and  sorrows  of  his  fellow - 
men,  or  open  to  them  the  mysteries  of  God.  The  prophet,  in 
his  person  as  well  as  in  his  words,  pointed  to  One  who  should 
perfectly  fulfil  these  functions  ;  should  declare  the  councils  of  the 
Holy  One  have  entire  fellowship  with  men,  reveal  to  them  the 
Father  of  all.  Were  those  who  thought  that  such  a  fulfilment 
had  actually  come  to  pass,  to  say,  "  Now  the  office  of  the 
prophet  is  obsolete  ;  we  have  no  need  of  it  ?  "  Unquestionably 
they  might  have  spoken  thus  respecting  a  multitude  of  accidents 
necessary  to  the  Jewish  prophet,  partly  in  consequence  of  his 
exclusiveness,  partly  because  the  light  was  breaking  in  gradually 
upon  himself  and  upon  those  he  taught,  through  mists  and 
vapors ;  partly  because,  till  man's  relation  to  God  was  fully  set 
forth,  divine  inspiration  must  have  seemed,  to  a  certain  extent, 
sudden  and  fortuitous.  Unquestionably  also  it  was  now  less 
possible  than  ever  for  any  man  to  call  himself  ^/le  prophet,  t/ie 
teacher  of  the  world.  Under  what  form  soever  such  a  pretension 
should  appear,  it  must  wrestle  with  the  belief  that  the  divine 
filial  prophet  had  actually  appeared,  till  one  or  other  were  over- 
come. But  is  it  credible  that  the  assertion,  "  Man  has  been 
brought  near  to  God ;  the  Spirit  of  God  has  come  down  to  dwell 
among  men,"  could  exfinj^uisA  human  inspiration  ;  could  do  any 
thing  but  expand  and  deepen  it,  taking  it  out  of  the  circle 
of  strange  phenomena,  and  exhibiting  it  as  the  rightful  law  of  all 
thoughts,  feelings,  studies,  acts  ;  making  it  the  anomaly  and  con- 
tradiction that  gifts  or  powers  by  which  any  men,  or  any  classes 
of  men  are  made  helpful  to  their  brethren,  should  seem  to  be 
self-originated,  and  not  to  have  their  first  spring  and  well-head, 
their  continual  renewal,  in  the  Perfect  Wisdom  ? 

III.  If  the  office  of  the  Jewish  Prophet  imported  a  communi- 
cation between  the  Spirit  of  God  and  the  Spirit  of  man,  and 
a  submission  of  one  to  the  other,  that  of  the  Jewish  lawgiver  as 
clearly  imported  that  resistance  to  the  divine  will  is  characteristic 
of  man — that  there  are  tendencies  in  all  men  which  lead  to  that 
resistance.  It  declared  that  there  is  a  distinct,  formal,  divine 
punishment,    for    transgression ;     that     every  disobeduncd  must 


THE    LAW    IN    THE    NEW    DISPENSATION.  525 

receive  its  just  reconipe7ise  of  reward.  This  penal  jurisprudence 
also  was  declared  to  proceed  from  the  voice  of  God.  Therein 
he  spoke  not  by  the  creature,  but  directly,  distinctly,  terribly  to 
the  creature.  The  law  was  dispensed  by  the  judge,  or  king  ;  he 
could  not  dispense  witfi  it.  He  w^as  not  its  master,  but  its  ser- 
vant. Its  decrees  and  sentences  applied  as  much  to  him  as  to 
the  meanest  of  his  subjects.  At  the  same  time,  as  the  book  of 
Deuteronomy  shows  (and  that  is  but  a  key  to  all  the  books,  and 
to  the  whole  history),  there  was  a  distinct  recognition  in  every 
period  of  a  meaning  in  the  law  which  was  higher  than  its  letter  ; 
of  this  meaning,  as  constituting  its  essential  righteousness, 
as  w^ell  as  its  mercifulness  and  graciousness  ;  of  this  meaning 
being  that  which  the  true  servant  of  the  Covenant  sought  to 
fulfil  and  delighted  in  ;  the  law  of  the  Lord,  in  which  he  medi- 
tated by  day  and  night.  It  remained  clad  in  all  its  terrors  for 
the  evil  nature  which  was  in  him  ;  he  used  these  terrors  to  coerce 
it ;  he  knew  that  these  terrors  would  prove  their  reality  upon 
every  one  who  set  up  idols  in  the  place  of  God,  or  violated  his 
neighbor's  landmark  ;  yet  to  be  told  that  there  was  no  law, 
or  that  he  was  not  under  it,  would  have  been  the  heaviest, 
most  frightful  curse  which  could  have  been  pronounced  against 
him.  How  w^as  the  case  changed  in  that  new  dispensation 
w^iich  rested  upon  the  acknowledgment  of  One  who  had  the  law 
in  his  heart,  who  was  content  to  do  it,  who  perfectly  fulfilled  it.-* 
Assuredly  there  must  have  been  this  change.  That  idea,  which 
was  but  an  idea  under  the  Jewish  economy  of  something  tran- 
scending positive  penal  law,  having  been  accomplished  in  a 
Person,  the  law  of  life  in  that  person  must  be  the  highest 
utterance  of  the  Divine  will — penal  positive  law  only  the  second- 
ary and  subordinate.  Man  must  be  regarded  first  in  his  true 
state,  in  his  relation  to  God  ;  his  evil  rebellious  nature  must  be 
treated  as  a  hateful  excrescence  to  be  cut  off.  But  so  long  as 
that  evil  nature  exists,  and  testifies  its  existence  by  its  fruits,  can 
it  ever  be  pretended  that  penal  law  has  lost  its  function,  or  is 
absorbed  into  a  spiritual  power  and  principle?  As  every  distinc- 
tion  becomes  clearer    and    sharper   in    proportion  as  the  light 


526  LECTURE    III. 

is  clearer  and  stronger,  such  a  confusion  would  be  even  more 
incompatible  with  the  character  of  the  new  economy  than  of  the 
old.  Supposing  then  the  Christian  Faith  ever  to  become 
triumphant  over  that  upon  which  the  imperial  power  rested,  sup- 
posing the  acknowledgment  of  the  Son  of  Man  and  Son  of  God 
to  become  the  groundwork  of  society,  one  would  surely  expect, 
along  with  that  revival  of  distinct  nations  and  distinct  national 
sovereignties  of  which  I  spoke,  a  revival  also  of  reverence  for 
Law,  as  having  its  source  in  the  unseen  majesty  of  God,  its 
obligation  in  "  The  Lord  saith."  The  deepest  and  most  dread- 
ful issues  of  all  would  indeed  be  connected,  as  they  are  in  this 
Epistle,  with  the  abuse  of  spiritual  privileges,  with  the  rejection 
of  the  divine  voice  speaking  from  heaven.  But  it  would  be 
surely  acknowledged,  just  so  far  as  the  Christian  principle  was 
acknowledged,  that  the  Divine  Voice  did  still  speak  also,  in  lan- 
guage suitable  to  earthly  notions,  fleshly  apprehensions  ;  that  it 
might  still  be  heard  in  every  denunciation  of  specific  punish- 
ments for  specific  overt  acts  against  the  peace  and  order  of 
a  national  society ;  that  the  judge  was  still  a  divine  functionary 
to  discern  the  boundaries  of  right  and  transgression,  and  all  the 
police  of  the  country,  civil  or  military,  divine  instruments  for 
asserting  the  one,  and  preventing  the  other,  or  executing  wrath 
upon  it ;  so  that  whenever  unrighteous  decrees  were  made, 
or  wrong  deeds  habitually  perpetrated  by  these  powers,  they 
should  be  felt  to  be  violations  of  a  trust  which  He  from  whom  it 
had  been  received  would  come  out  of  his  place  to  avenge. 

IV.  As  an  illustration  of  the  last  topic,  still  more  for  its  own 
sake,  the  sabbath-day  requires  especially  to  be  considered  in  its 
relation  to  the  new  economy.  Its  obligation  to  a  Jew  rested  on 
a  literal  positive  law ;  yet  it  belonged  to  a  period  earlier  than  all 
positive,  literal  law :  it  spoke,  as  the  Epistle  tells  us,  of  a  rest 
accomplished  ;  it  spoke  of  a  rest  unaccomplished  ;  it  spoke  of  a 
rest  of  God,  the  rest  of  Creation ;  it  spoke  of  a  rest  for  man,  the 
rest  of  deliverance  from  servitude ;  it  spoke  of  man's  rest  as  the 
image  of  God's  rest ;  of  man's  rest  as  only  perfect  when  he  en- 
tered into  the  rest  of  God. 


THE    SABBATH-DAY    IN    THE    NEW    DISPENSATION.        52/ 

According  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Epistle,  the  former  precept 
ordaining  this  as  well  as  every  other  institution,  was  leading  on 
to  the  discovery  of  a  Person  in  whom  its  meaning  was  fulfilled  ; 
to  the  discovery  of  one  in  whom  God  and  Man  meet  and  are 
reconciled,  in  whom  both  may  rest.  Did  this  institution  lose  its 
significance  for  those  who  believed  that  this  Person  had  been 
manifested  ?  As  in  all  other  cases,  the  ground  of  the  precept 
having  been  made  known,  the  precept  cannot  be  pleaded  as  a 
naked  authority,  apart  from  its  ground.  Any  attempt  to  main- 
tain a  mere  creation  sabbath,  because  the  commandment  enjoins 
one,  is  to  set  aside  the  reason  which  the  commandment  itself 
gives.  Some  change  therefore  must  be  expected  to  take  place  in 
this  appointment,  or  it  would  stand  as  an  inexplicable  anomaly  in 
the  new  order  of  things.  But  could  it  be  pretended  that  the  re- 
lation of  work  to  rest,  which  is  set  forth  in  the  relation  of  the 
sabbath-day  to  the  six — the  difficulty  of  practically  realizing  and 
representing  which  was  one  of  the  main  characteristic  difficulties 
of  the  Gentile  world,  one  which  may  be  traced  in  all  its  mythol- 
ogy and  philosophy — had  ceased  to  exist,  or  needed  less  to  be 
wrought  into  the  order  of  time,  into  the  tissue  of  human  life,  now 
than  formerly  ?  Could  it  be  said,  that  because  the  meaning  of 
man  being  made  in  the  image  of  God  was  now  revealed,  the  idea 
of  the,  rest  and  work  of  man  being  images  of  the  rest  and  work 
of  God  had  lost  its  significance,  or  could  less  be  expressed,  or 
less  needed  to  be  expressed,  in  a  practical  form  ?  Could  it  be 
contended  that,  because  Christ  had  glorified  the  estate  of  poverty, 
the  rights  of  the  poor  man  v/hich  this  ordinance  had  so  blessedly 
asserted,  and  had  so  connected  with  what  is  most  divine,  must 
not  henceforth  be  put  forth  in  so  simple,  direct  a  method,  or  that 
the  method  must  no  longer  be  regarded  as  divine  ?  Could  it  be 
said  that  because  Christ  had  fully  entered  into  the  rest  of  God, 
this  rest  should  not  any  longer  be  felt  "by  the  weary  oppressed 
creature  as  a  reality  dawning  upon  him  through  his  ordinary 
earthly  experience  ? 

V.  That  same  entering  of  the  Son  of  Man  into  the  perfect 
rest  of  God,  which  substantiates  the  idea  of  the   sabbath,  sub- 


528  LECTURE 'in. 

stantiates  also,  according  to  the  teaching  of  this  Epistle,  the  idea 
of  the  Priest.  The  Jewish  High  Priest  represented  the  holiness 
of  the  separated,  sanctified  nation ;  he  was  divinely  elected  to 
this  dignity  as  the  nation  was  elected  to  its  dignity.  His  was  a 
family  designation,  as  all  the  Israelites  constituted  a  family.  He 
was  the  head  of  a  body,  a  family  of  priests,  all  called  to  their 
ofBce  by  formal  consecration  ;  he  the  representative  of  the  nation 
as  a  whole,  they  of  its  individual  members.  He  drew  nigh  to 
God  in  the  name  of  the  nation,  offering  its  sacrifices,  setting 
forth  the  greatness  and  holiness  of  the  nation  to  be  not  in  itself, 
but  in  Him  who  had  taken  it  into  covenant.  Yet  in  all  these 
respects  the  Epistle  teaches  us  the  office  was  imperfect.  The 
designation  was  imperfect;  it  was  merely  legal,  not  significative 
of  a  direct  relation  between  the  priest  and  the  Lord  of  all.  It 
was  a  tribal,  not  an  universal  office  ;  he  represented  at  best  the 
purity  of  a  nation,  not  of  humanity.  He  only  represented  this 
purity,  but  did  not  actually  show  it  forth ;  he  had  for  himself,  as 
well  as  for  the  people,  to  make  offerings  for  sin.  He  was  not 
therefore  effectually  one  with  the  whole  people ;  sin  separated 
him  from  them  as  well  as  from  God.  He  did  not  actually  enter 
into  the  presence  of  God  ;  the  figures  of  the  Temple  expressed 
that  only  at  certain  seasons  the  veil  between  the  worshipper  and 
his  Creator  could  be  withdrawn.  Supposing  the  faith  to  .estab- 
lish itself,  that  a  filial  Priest  had  appeared,  that  he  had  the  high- 
est designation,  that  He  was  the  representative  of  humanity,  that 
He  was  perfectly  pure,  that  He  had  perfectly  sympathized  with 
men,  that  He  had  sat  down  at  the  right  hand  of  God — what 
place  remained  for  priests  upon  earth  "i  We  must  answer  :  If 
the  argument  of  the  Epistle  signify  any  thing,  for  a  High  Priest 
there  could  be  no  place.  He  who  should  assume  to  be  //^^  Priest 
of  the  Universe,  would  by  that  claim  interfere  not  with  some  ac- 
cident of  the  New  Dispensation,  but  with  its  primary  idea  ;  with 
that  which  for  ages  and  generations  had  been  unfolding  itself 
under  the  divine  education.  Such  an  effort,  however  it  might 
disguise  itself,  must  struggle  with  the  principle  to  which  it  is  op- 
posed till  one  or  other  be  overthrown.     Though  this  effort  to  es- 


THE    PRIESTHOOD    IN    THE    NEW    DISPENSATION.        529 

tablish  a  mortal  High  Priesthood  should  at  first  proceed  from  a 
real  earnest  wish  to  make  the  Invisible  Priesthood  more  a  fact 
to  human  consciousness,  though  it  could  actually  be  shown  to 
have  produced  this  effect,  yet  in  it  must  lie  hid — to  be  displayed 
one  time  or  another — the  denial  of  an  actual  relationship  be- 
tween man  and  God.  Out  of  it  must  proceed  the  degradation  of 
man's  spiritual  rights  ;  the  subjection  to  creatures  ;  all  the  evils 
which  the  writer  of  this  Epistle  saw  threatening  the  Palestine 
Christians.  It  must  involve  not  merely  the  loss  of  the  Christian 
idea  of  priesthood,  but  of  the  Jewish  also — the  formal  adoption 
of  the  heathen  notion,  which  the  heathen  himself  struggled 
against  as  a  corruption — that  the  priestly  order  is  not  the  repre- 
sentative of  Humanity,  but  is  separated  from  it ;  not  the  head  of 
a  kingdom  of  priests,  but  one  whom  they  were  to  admire,  be- 
cause he  is  wholly  different  from  themselves.  Without  advanc- 
ing a  step  beyond  the  experience  of  the  world  in  its  Jewish  and 
heathen  divisions,  we  might  assume  that  this  principle,  lying  in 
the  very  nature  of  man,  would  assault  Christianity.  Without  ad- 
vancing a  step  beyond  the  teaching  of  this  Epistle,  we  may  affirm 
what  the  effect  must  be  if  the  tempter  prevailed.  But  are  we 
therefore  to  say.  The  idea  of  priests  upon  earth,  of.  men  witness- 
ing of  that  filial  High  Priest  who  has  ascended  into  the  heavens, 
witnessing  for  the  real  relation  between  God  and  man,  witness- 
ing for  the  spiritual  glory  of  Humanity,  connected  as  an  order 
from  generation  to  generation,  yet  having  no  tribe  limitation, 
standing  not  upon  the  law  of  a  carnal  commandment,  but  upon 
the  gift  of  the  divine  Spirit ;  declaring  that  the  oil  of  gladness  is 
not  theirs  exclusively,  that  it  goes  down  from  the  head  to  the 
skirts  of  his  garment,  that  the  powers,  gifts,  means  of  benefiting 
their  brethren,  which  they  receive,  are  signs  that  all  gifts  and 
powers  bestowed  upon  any  class  of  men  for  any  work  have  the 
same  source — are  we  to  say  that  such  an  order  of  priests  would 
be  incompatible  with  any  maxim  of  the  new  economy?  Can  we 
think  that  it  would  interfere  with  the  heavenly  and  perfect 
character  of  the  Head,  or  with  the  privileges  of  the  body,  or  with 
the  distinctness  of  any  one  of  its  members  ?     Are  we  to  say  that 


530  LECTURE    III. 

such  an  order  would  have  only  a  figurative,  not  a  real,  right  to 
the  name  of  priests  ?  In  what  one  characteristic  of  the  office 
would  they  be  deficient,  save  those  which  were  the  incidents  of 
an  imperfect  period,  or  that  which  is  the  one  property  of  Him  to 
whom  they  all  refer  themselves,  and  apart  from  whom  they  have 
no  reality  ?  Must  we  not  rather  think,  that  if  the  priestly  idea 
dropped  out  of  the  circle  of  Christian  ideas,  the  sense  of  what 
mankind  had  gained  by  the  ascension  of  Christ  would  disappear 
also  ;  that  if  it  were  limited  to  Him  who  has  fully  realized,  and 
can  alone  fully  realize  it,  the  belief  of  his  union  with  the  crea- 
tures whom  he  has  called  his  brethren,  would  grow  feeble  ;  that 
if  it  were  claimed  merely  by  the  Christian  body,  the  belief  of  the 
unity  of  that  body  in  its  distinct  portions,  and  as  a  whole  would 
evaporate,  and  merely  a  vague  blessing  be  asserted  for  each  per- 
son, the  consciousness  of  which  would  be  sufficient  to  exalt  him 
in  his  own  esteem,  not  to  give  him  the  practical  assurance 
that  he  might  draw  nigh  with  a  pure  heart  and  spirit  to  God  ? 

VI.  It  must  have  been  a  deeply  interesting  reflection  to  a 
Palestine  Jew  at  the  time  this  letter  was  written  ;  "  This  temple 
made  with  hands  is  about  to  perish  from  off  the  earth  ;  He  said 
so  who  glorified  it  with  His  Presence,  who  called  it  His  Father's 
house.  We  know  that  His  glorified  Body  is  the  Great  Temple 
of  all  ;  we  know  that  we  are  spiritual  temples  in  which  He  has 
promised  to  dwell.  But  supposing  the  earth  should  not  at  once 
be  destroyed  ;  supposing  buildings  for  all  earthly  purposes  should 
continue  to  be  raised  ; — will  those  who  hear  the  gospel  of  Christ 
and  receive  it,  be  prevented  by  that  divine,  mysterious  faith  of 
theirs,  from  raising  temples  to  the  Unseen  Majesty  of  heaven 
and  earth  ?  "  Once  more  the  Epistle  seems  to  determine  the 
answer.  A  temple  importing,  as  the  Jewish  temple  did,  that  the 
veil  was  not  withdrawn  which  separated  men  from  God  ;  a  temple 
binding  men  to  a  figurative,  not  a  real  worship  ;  leading  them  to 
think  that  the  idea  of  God  lay  somewhere  hidden  in  the  forms  of 
nature  and  art,  and  had  not  been  embodied  in  the  person  of  a 
man,  must  be  at  variance  with  the  Christian  revelation.  And  be- 
cause the  temptation  to  these  dangers  lay  very  near  the  heart  of 


TEMPLES    IN    THE    NEW    DISPENSATION.  53 1 

men,  and  had  continually  re-appeared  in  the  Jewish  as  well  as 
the  heathen  world, — it  was  no  unreasonable  thought,  that  perhaps 
Christian  men  might  for  a  time  be  turned  away  from  the  con- 
templation of  outward  forms,  and  of  their  connection  with  the  in- 
visible, or  at  least  might  be  hindered  from  any  elaborate  effort  to 
express  their  awe  of  the  one  through  the  other.  But  since  the 
imagination,  turned  out  of  one  direction,  is  likely  to  disport  itself 
wildly  in  another  ;  since  it  may  play  quite  as  mischievously  with 
intellectual  as  well  as  with  sensual  shapes, — such  a  provision, 
needful  for  a  time,  might  not  perhaps  continue.  The  temple  of 
the  Jews,  instead  of  being  in  itself  a  means  to  idolatry,  had  been 
the  great  witness  against  it.  Animal  and  earthly  forms  had  been 
by  it  redeemed  and  dedicated  to  the  Unseen  God,  that  they 
might  not  be  honored  in  themselves.  The  separation  and  con- 
secration of  a  building  had  signified  that  God  is  not  a  Presence 
in  earth  or  air,  but  a  living  Person.  Such  a  testimony  might  not 
be  less  wanted  in  the  new  time,  than  in  the  old.  The  belief, 
that  Christ  had  redeemed  the  earth  by  dwelling  upon  it,  proved 
indeed  that  no  portion  of  it  was  unholy.  It  could  not  prove  that 
one  or  another  place  in  the  earth  might  not  be  set  apart  as  a 
witness  of  its  holiness — as  an  assertion  of  his  dominion  over  it. 
He  had  gone  into  the  unseen  world  ;  this  might  show  that  men 
were  not  to  dwell  among  visible  things  ;  it  could  not  show  that 
visible  things  might  not  be  converted  into  tokens  of  the  invisible, 
— into  means  of  withdrawing  men  from  themselves.  Christ  had 
spoken  in  parables  drawn  from  nature,  and  outward  things,  and 
then  had  promised  to  show  men  plainly  of  the  Father.  This 
might  prove  that  the  perfectly  spiritual  and  pure  vision  is  the 
highest  and  best  thing  of  all,  a  blessing  too  which  one  as  much 
as  another,  the  poorest  saint  often  more  than  the  most  learned, 
might  attain.  It  could  not  show  that  He  would  not  hereafter 
endow  His  servants,  as  he  did  of  old,  with  the  power  of  translat- 
ing the  language  of  earth  into  that  of  heaven  ;  of  compelling 
wood  and  stone  to  testify  of  the  Holy  and  Infinite  Presence,  and 
of  man's  ascent  into  it,  as  they  had  testified  to  Greek  minds  of 
the  human  and  the  finite,  and  of  men's  power  over  it. 


532 


LECTURE    III. 


VII.  The  Church  will  speak  to  us  to-morrow  of  One  who  was 
presented  pure  to  God  in  substance  of  our  flesh.  Here  we  have 
the  realization  of  that  idea  of  purification  which  was  expressed 
in  various  forms  under  the  Old  Economy.  Some  of  these  forms 
were  manifestly  adapted  to  the  education  of  an  Eastern  people  ; 
a  moral  education  beautifully  blended  with  the  removal  of  phys- 
ical evil  and  the  promotion  of  bodily  health.  If  universality  were 
given  to  these,  the  idea  of  a  dispensation  for  all  people  and  lan- 
guages would  be  set  aside  ;  if  sacredness  were  given  to  them 
merely  because  they  had  proceeded  from  a  divine  Lawgiver,  law 
would  be  exalted  above  its  end  and  meaning,  in  contradiction  to 
the  maxim  which  this  Epistle  so  diligently  enforces.  If  any  out- 
ward purification  should  be  used  merely  to  denote  the  need  of 
purification  of  the  conscience,  and  not  to  show  that  it  might  be 
effected  by  a  divine  process,  the  difference  between  the  new  and 
old  economy  was  destroyed.  If  outward  purifications  should  be 
used  as  a  substitute  for  inward  purifications,  not  the  Old 
Economy,  but  the  pharisaical  conception  of  it,  would  be  restored. 
Lastly,  if  it  were  taught  that  any  purifications,  outward  or  inward, 
were  to  make  men  pure  in  themselves  as  apart  from  Him  in  whom 
the  purity  of  man  dwells,  the  central  truth  of  the  New  Testament 
is  denied.  But  the  Jews  of  Palestine  had  been  practically  taught 
that  an  outward  act  of  purification  was  the  introduction  into  the 
Christian  family.  This  act  had  every  sign  of  universality;  it 
would  be  intelligible  to  all  people  in  all  lands.  The  words  which 
accompanied  it  showed  that  it  did  not  speak  of  any  thing  legal, 
but  expressly  of  adoption  into  a  filial  covenant ;  of  any  thing  ex- 
ternal, but  of  service  to  an  Unseen  and  Holy  Lord  ;  of  anything 
merely  prospective,  but  of  a  purity  already  obtained  for  men  in 
Christ  j  of  any  thing  unreal,  but  of  a  purification  and  deliverance 
of  the  heart  and  conscience  from  the  corruptions  of  the  world 
and  flesh  and  the  temptations  of  the  Evil  Spirit,  to  be  wrought 
by  the  indwelling  of  a  Divine  Spirit.  To  suppose  that  this  token 
of  an  accomplished  and  ever-continuing  blessing,  in  which  was 
gathered  up  the  whole  purpose  to  which  the  Old  Economy  was 
pointing — the  great  revelation  of  the  New — could  ever  become  ob- 


THE    COVENANT    IN    THE    NEW    DISPENSATION.  533 

solete,  would  have  been  the  same  thing,  as  to  suppose  that  every 
imperfect  apprehension  of  Judaism,  every  false  and  dark  dream 
of  heathenism  would  be  allowed  to  prevail  against  the  truth 
which  had  come  to  satisfy  the  one  and  to  disperse  the  other. 
Such  apprehensions  and  dreams  might  return — in  all  probability 
they  would  ;  but  in  every  age  this  simple  rite  of  Baptism,  inter- 
preting itself  by  the  words  of  Scripture,  would  be  found  the  great 
barrier  against  them. 

VIII.  I  have  been  led  unawares  into  the  next  subject  of 
which  the  Epistle  speaks — that  of  the  Covenant.  It  would  be  an 
abuse  of  language  to  speak  of  this  as  a  Jewish  institution ;  it  was 
rather  that  which  explained  all  the  institutions,  which  gave  the 
Israelite  an  assurance  that  they  were  really  divine.  Believing  in 
it,  Kings,  Priests,  Law,  Sabbath-days,  Temple,  Purifications,  were 
all  unspeakably  precious  ;  losing  his  faith  in  it,  all  were  dreary 
formalities,  dead  letters — only  temptations  to  worship  idols  or 
glorify  himself.  In  the  days  of  Ahaz,  forgetfulness  of  the  Cov- 
enant was  the  sin  ;  then  it  led  to  the  worship  of  Syrian  idols,  and 
to  distrust  in  God's  care  for  the  family  of  David  :  in  the  days  of 
Zedekiah  it  was  the  sin ;  then  it  led  to  wilful  confidence  that  the 
armies  of  Nebuchadnezzar  could  not  destroy  the  sinful  city :  in 
the  days  of  our  Lord's  Incarnation  it  was  the  sin ;  then  it  led  to 
a  feeling  that  God  could  not  really  manifest  Himself  to  His  crea- 
tures, that  He  was  afar  off,  and  not  nigh  ;  to  theories  about  Him, 
instead  of  faith  in  Him  ;  to  sects  and  parties,  instead  of  national 
fellowship  ;  thence  to  an  incapacity  of  recognizing  the  true  King; 
thence  to  the  cry,  "  We  have  no  king  but  Caesar  !  "  thence  to  ruin 
and  extirpation.  Now  the  Hebrew  Christians  were  told  in  this 
Epistle,  that  the  Old  Covenant  had  passed  away,  that  a  new  one 
had  taken  its  place,  of  which  they  were  the  heirs.  There  were 
two  important  questions  then  to  ask  respecting  themselves  and 
all  Christians  in  times  to  come  :  In  what  respects  is  this  Cove- 
nant different  from  the  Jewish  ?  Will  the  effects  of  forgetting  it 
be  the  same  or  different  "i  To  the  first  they  could  answer  at  once, 
if  they  understood  the  doctrine  of  the  Epistle,  A  covenant  of  son- 
ship  is  different  from  a  covenant  of  servitude  ;  adoption  is  better 


534  LECTURE    III. 

than  mere  election.  By  circumcision  we  are  cut  off  directly  from 
other  nations,  implicitly  from  our  own  evil  natures.  In  baptism 
the  main  thing  is  separation  from  the  evil  nature,  only  the  acci- 
dental separation  from  any  other  people.  Circumcision  was  Jew- 
ish j  baptism  is  human ;  circumcision  was  the  sign  that  the  males 
of  one  country  were  taken  by  the  Lord  of  all  to  be  his  subjects, 
baptism  is  the  sign  that  men  and  women  and  children  of  all 
countries  are  adopted  into  one  family,  are  sealed  with  the  name 
of  the  Father,  and  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost. 

To  the  second  question  the  warnings  of  the  Epistle  replied 
still  more  decisively.  The  Jewish  Christians  are  reminded  in  it 
again  and  again,  that  their  sin  was  essentially  like  that  of  their 
forefathers ;  for  it  was  the  sin  of  distrust,  the  sin  of  not  believing 
that  they  had  been  taken  under  the  divine  government,  and  that 
God  was  really  holding  intercourse  with  them.  But  they  are 
told  also  that  the  degree  of  wrong  and  peril  in  the  two  cases  was 
very  different.  To  disbelieve  in  the  heavenly  Covenant  was 
another  thing  from  disbelieving  in  the  earthly  :  to  deny  that  they 
had  a  birthright  in  the  divine  kingdom  was  casting  away  a  bles- 
sing quite  unlike  that  which  Esau  cast  away;  not  to  claim  citi- 
zenship in  the  New  Jerusalem  was  to  choose  an  exile  with  which 
theirs  who  gave  up  the  privilege  of  circumcision  and  the  Law, 
that  they  might  be  like  the  heathen  round  about,  could  bear  no 
comparison. 

Supposing  then  the  tendency  to  forget  the  Christian  Covenant, 
which  appeared  so  early  in  the  Church,  should  under  one  form  or 
another  characterize  it  in  all  periods,  now  tempting  men  to  make 
it  less  comprehensive,  now  to  empty  it  of  its  spiritual  reality  and 
reduce  it  to  a  form  ;  now  to  treat  the  sign  of  it  as  if  it  were  some- 
thing in  itself,  apart  from  Him  who  gave  it  as  the  witness  of  his 
relation  to  his  creatures  ;  now  to  make  its  worth  contingent  upon 
human  acts  or  faith  or  feelings  ;  now  under  some  pretext  or 
other  to  shut  out  baptized  men  from  its  privileges,  powers,  re- 
sponsibilities ; — we  must  expect  from  the  intimations  of  Scrip- 
ture that  all  other  evils — superstition,  recurrence  to  Judaism  and 
heathenism,  party  spirit,  godlessness  would  come  in  the  train  of 


FORGETFULNESS  OF  THE  COVENANT.         535 

this  sin  ;  that  divine  judgments  would  often  bring  men  to  the 
sense  of  it ;  that  as  it  contains  in  itself  the  principle  of  apostasy, 
this,  if  the  warnings  were  not  heeded,  would  be  its  ultimate  issue. 

IX.  Following  the  order  of  the  Epistle,  we  come  at  last  to  the 
subject  of  sacrifices  ; — a  subject  which,  closely  as  it  is  connected 
with  that  of  the  priesthood,  may  yet  be  treated  distinctly.  It 
should  be  remembered  that  the  Jewish  notion  of  sacrifice  is  not 
only  expressed  in  the  daily  offering  or  in  the  yearly  atonement. 
Every  Jew  was  considered  as  a  sacrificed  man.  The  firstborn, 
the  chief  of  the  man's  strength,  the  representative  of  the  whole 
family,  was  formally  devoted  to  God,  was  formally  redeemed 
from  death  by  the  giving  up  of  an  animal.  Sacrifice  then  was 
not  merely  a  provision  against  transgression,  and  anomaly.  It 
was  regarded  as  the  true  state  of  a  creature  in  covenant  with 
God.  By  entering  into  that  covenant,  he  gave  himself  up',  the 
sign  of  death  was  put  upon  him  ;  he  held  his  life  as  by  respite, 
though  it  might  extend  to  threescore  years  and  ten,  or  to  four- 
score. Every  offering  of  an  animal  day  by  day  was  a  renewed 
confession  of  death  being  his  natural  condition,  that  from  which 
God  was  keeping  him.  Every  offering  for  a  specific  transgres- 
sion was  an  acknowledgment  of  having  departed  from  the  true 
state  of  an  Israelite,  of  having  broken  loose  from  allegiance  to 
the  King  of  the  nation,  from  union  to  its  members  ;  it  was  asking 
to  be  restored  ;  a  witness  that  giving  up  of  that  which  had  caused 
the  separation  is  necessary  to  restoration. 

The  Perfect  Sacrifice  realized  the  idea  in  both  its  aspects.  He 
offered  Himself  as  a  Son,  because  His  delight  was  to  do  the  will 
of  the  Father  in  human  flesh,  as  it  had  been  before  the  worlds 
were.  He  offered  himself  for  transgressions,  because  the  crea- 
tures whose  nature  he  bore,  instead  of  delighting  to  do  His  Will, 
had  rebelled  against  it — had  lived  to  themselves,  instead  of  de- 
voting themselves  to  Him.  How  then  would  those  who  believed 
that  this  atonement  had  been  made,  think  henceforth  of  sacri- 
fices ?  Animal  sacrifices  could  not  be  now  that  the  human  Sac- 
rifice had  been  offered ;  figurative  sacrifices  had  been  lost  in  the 
real  Sacrifice — sacrifices  to  take   away  the   sin  of  the  world  in 


536  LECTURE    III. 

that  which  had  taken  it  away.  There  might  be  attempts  again 
to  substitute  the  figure  for  the  reality — the  imperfect  for  the  per- 
fect. Since  the  struggle  of  the  flesh  against  the  Spirit  is  so 
great,  since  man  strives  so  hard  not  to  be  a  receiver,  such  con- 
trivances of  the  conscience  to  delude  and  satisfy  itself  might 
surely  be  predicted.  By  these  untruths  others  could  not  fail  to 
be  generated,  fearful  confusions  of  spiritual  objects  and  sensible, 
perhaps  even  of  the  thing  offered  with  Him  to  whom  it  is  offered. 
No  doubt  such  contradictions,  if  they  appeared  in  the  Christian 
doctrine  or  worship,  would  have  a  long  and  desperate  struggle 
with  the  principle  which  they  disturbed,  till  they  should  be  cast 
out  by  it.  But  what  would  they  have  to  encounter,  if  not  the 
principle  of  Sacrifice  in  its  highest  form  ? 

Must  not  that  idea  penetrate  even  more  deeply  into  this  dis- 
pensation than  it  did  into  the  old  ?  Must  not  the  presentation 
of  the  one  real  perfect  Sacrifice  to  the  Father,  the  continual 
thanksgiving  for  that  sacrifice,  be  the  central  act  of  all  worship 
to  God — of  all  fellowship  among  men  ?  Must  not  the  offering 
of  the  worshipper's  soul  and  body  as  living  sacrifices  to  God  be 
the  necessary  fruit  and  accompaniment  of  this  act,  that  which 
gives  a  meaning  to  all  the  greatest  and  meanest  services — to  the 
most  transcendent  and  the  commonest  acts  of  life  ?  Must  not  a 
return  to  Jewish  and  heathen  notions  of  sacrifice,  with  the  dark 
superstitions  which  accompanied  the  last,  be  the  reaction  against 
a  temper  of  mind  which  undervalues  sacrifice  ?  Must  not  that 
temper  of  mind  at  last  destroy  the  very  idea  of  communion  be- 
tween heaven  and  earth,  nay  between  man  and  man,  and  substi- 
tute the  creed  and  practice  of  unmitigated  selfishness  for  the 
creed  and  practice  of  the  Gospel  ? 

With  these  hints  which  we  have  gathered  from  the  study  of 
this  Epistle  as  our  guides,  we  may,  I  think,  venture  upon  the 
difficult  problems  which  the  history  of  the  Church  presents,  trust- 
ing that  if  we  do  not  find  the  solution  of  them  all,  we  shall  at 
least  be  taught  to  discern  a  clear  line  between  that  which  is  the 
work  of  God,  and  that,  however  intimately  blended  with  it,  which 
has  proceeded  from  an  evil,  counterfeit,  destructive  principle. 


APPENDIX. 


The  members  of  the  Maurice  Memorial  Union  intended,  at  first,  to  publish  a 
complete  American  edition  of  his  works;  but  in  deference  to  Macmillan's 
copyrights,  held  for  Mrs.  Maurice,  this  is  deferred  during  her  lifetime ;  and 
they  bring  out  only  the  foregoing  volume,  which  Macmillan  does  not  reprint, 
and  of  which  Mr.  Maurice  in  his  lifetime  said,  that  be  "  would  rather  all  the 
other  works  would  go  out  of  print  than  it,"  a  remark  easily  understood  by  the 
readers  of  his  two  volumes,  What  is  Revelatio7t  ?  and  Sequel  to  the  Same,  in 
which  he  discusses  Sir  William  Hamilton's  doctrine  of  the  Unknowable,  and 
the  opposite  but  equally  logical  deductions  therefrom  of  Mr.  Mansell  and  Mr. 
Mill,  and  asks  if  the  Omnipotent  Father  cannot  reveal  Himself. 

His  other  studies  in  the  Scriptures  are  to  be  obtained  of  Macmillan  in 
New  York,  viz. : 

The  Patriarchs  and  Lawgivers  of  the  Old  Testament. 

The  Prophets  and  Kings  of  Israel. 

(The  above  works  illustrate  the  truth  of  Coleridge's  saying,  that  the  Bible, 
truly  interpreted,  is  the  best  manual  for  the  devout  statesman.) 

St.  Luke's  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

St.  John's  Gospel  of  the  Word. 

Christian  Ethics  ( Lectures  to  the  Workingmen's  College  on  St.  John's 
Epistles.) 

The  Apocalypse  ;  a  Vision. 

(Of  this  last  work  the  Nonconformist  said  :  "  Never  has  Mr.  Maurice  been 
more  reverent,  more  careful  of  the  letter  of  Scripture,  more  discerning  of  the 
purpose  of  the  Spirit,  or  more  sober  and  practical  in  his  teaching,  than  in  this 
volume  on  the  Apocalypse."  He  shows  in  it  that  the  historical  allusions  are 
to  passing  or  recent  events,  and  that  the  spiritual  interpretation  of  them  must 
needs  apply  to  the  catastrophes  of  the  history  of  all  times,  which  illustrate 
identical  principles  and  everlasting  laws.) 

The  Doctrine  of  Sacrifice  Deduced  from  the  Scriptures.  (Speaking  of 
**  Sacfifice  "  in  every  aspect  in  which  the  Bible  presents  it.) 

The  Ten  Commandments  Considered  as  Instruments  of  National  Reforma- 
ation. 


538  APPENDIX. 

The  Lord^s  Prayer.     (Nine  sermons  preached  in  1848.) 

Grounds  of  Hope  for  Mankind.     (Three  sermons  preached  in  1867.) 

Ecclesiastical  History  of  \\\&  first  two  Centuries. 

Theological  Essays.    (Containing  the  remarkable  one  on  the  word  Eternal.) 

The  Religions  of  the  Worlds  and  their  Relation  to  Christianity. 

Learning  and  Working.  (In  which  volume  are  bound  up  four  lectures  on 
The  Religion  of  Ancient  Rome  before  the  Greek  Infusion.) 

His  last  publications  were  : 

JVifte  Lectures  on  Conscience. 

Twenty-seven  Lectures  on  Social  Morality.  (Discussing  Domestic  Morality 
and  Worship,  National  Morality  and  Worship,  Universal  Morality  and 
Worship.) 

A  new  edition  of  the 

History  of  Moral  and  Intellectual  Philosophy,  up  to  the  time  of  Hegel,  etc. 

Besides  the  above  works,  are  many  on  the  Education  of  Women,  Queen's 
College,  etc.  More  especially  interesting  to  England  :  Exposition  of  the  Book 
of  CoTUfnon  Prayer ;  Dialogues  on  Family  Worship ;  The  Claims  of  the  Bible 
and  Sciejice ;  and,  in  his  earlier  life,  many  pamphlets  on  social  subjects  • 
"Christian  Socialism;"  "Co-operation;"  "The  Workman  and  the  Fran- 
chise." And  somewhat  later,  on  the  Controversy  between  Protestantism 
and  Romanism,  to  which  belongs  the  Essay  on  Development,  which  forms 
the  introduction  of  the  English  edition  of  the  "  Commentary  on  the  He- 
brews." Also  pamphlets  on  "  Sunday  Excursions,"  the  "  Opening  of  the 
Crystal  Palace  on  Sundays,"  etc.  To  a  man  so  vital,  truly  nihil  hicmani 
alienam. 

Sermons  preached  in  country  Parishes  (posthumous). 

Since  his  death,  Mr.  Thomas  Hughes,  M.P.,  has  edited  a  volume  of  his 
fugitive  peices,  entitled,  from  the  first  one,  The  Friendship  of  Books. 


Date  Due 


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